What are your thoughts on RCS messaging now that you can use it between Android and iOS?
from unicornBro@sh.itjust.works to privacy@lemmy.ml on 01 Jan 20:31
https://sh.itjust.works/post/52648363
from unicornBro@sh.itjust.works to privacy@lemmy.ml on 01 Jan 20:31
https://sh.itjust.works/post/52648363
I’ve found that my circle of contacts use the default messaging app for group chats even more now. I couldn’t get them to use Signal but at least they’re posting in the RCS group chat more instead of on Meta platforms.
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I see no point in RCS or Signal if there is still client side scanning through spy apps installed by Apple or Google or even IA capabilities on the devices.
I’ve heard stories about Apple AI being able to summarize Signal chats even when you deny the AI access to Signal. If anyone knows, please correct me if I’m wrong.
Edit So I think there is no point in a foss encrypted messenger app unless both parties will be on a foss OS.
I wasn’t able to reproduce what you described about apple ai and signal.
The foss-ness of an operating system or application doesn’t matter for the purposes of encrypted messaging, what matters is if the user has the application and operating system configured appropriately and understands how to not give up secrets.
RCS is even less secure than SMS though — it’s unencrypted and by design, Google, Apple and the carriers all have to be able to inspect the content. And the way it’s designed makes it really difficult to have an open E2E encryption standard. So as a result, Google<->Google is encrypted, Apple<->Apple is encrypted, but combine even one device not of the same type in a group chat and it has to be unencrypted.
Just like before, I will keep it disabled.
You can use Signal between Android and iOS too.
Couldn’t convince my family and others to use Signal or Threema. I contact them individually and in groups via RCS.
It really sucks and makes troubles all the time. Group replies get only delivered to me, media gets stuck… and I know that it is not yet encrypted, when I contact people directly.
From the perspective of being committed to not use anything Meta, I think it’s great that it exists. It’s very convenient that you can ask any third party or businesses to send any image or document through RCS instead of having to use WhatsApp, which a lot of them use by default these days. I personally ask them if they can first send it through Signal, but not a lot of them would do so and hence it becomes easier to make them use something that already exists on their phone by default.
Those serious about encryption would use Signal or Threema or other such apps anyway. But otherwise, this is great, especially now that it’s on both iOS and Android.
Last I checked, there is still no way for developers to use RCS on Android, so it’s a non-starter for me. I do not and will not limit myself to first-party apps.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. If there’s an open-source RCS-compatible messaging app out there, I’d love to try it.
Nope, you are still correct. To the best of my knowledge.
I can’t use it between Android and iOS because I don’t have Google Play Services and RCS requires Google Play Services and Google Messenger on Android to work. No third party app can use it.
Open platform my ass. Most carriers just use Google’s servers for it.
Better than SMS I suppose but still pointless for my needs. No encryption = no usage from me
Doesn’t work properly on Graphene OS most of the time
If you have T-Mobile or AT&T, there is an incompatibility between them and GrapheneOS
I have switched away from those carriers for about a month now and RCS has consistently worked for me with no issues
As I understand it any carrier could break at any time. The Graphene team isn’t prioritizing fixes because it’s not E2EE
The carrier has to support it which is a red flag for me since they have to archive metadata and the contents.
This’ll be a hot take but anything based on Signal’s protocol (including WhatsApp) is better than RCS in all ways.
I waited years for it, but now that everyone is on Signal it doesn’t excite me.
Where? I‘ve Signal installed and literally only 2 contacts use it.
I’ve never even heard of signal
That’s awesome, now you know!
I have a feeling most people click the maximum privacy “hide from contacts” option at the start, probably not thinking it through. And that means you wouldn’t be able to see them. You can try searching manually as that sometimes seems to find them.
That said, when I asked people who texted me “do you have Signal?” I think about 50% said yes and the other 50% were able to download it without issue.
People are downloading a messaging app for you?
I wish I was you. Here no one wants to download a second messaging app just to chat with one person. Why would they? Everyone is on WhatsApp. No one cares about privacy and that the app is owned by Meta (Facebook).
The protocol is cool, the implementation becoming proprietary and enshittified is a bummer.
My VPN doesn’t work with RCS, which is, at best, annoying. It automatically connects when I’m on untrusted WiFi. Hopefully anyone messaging me has the “fall back to SMS” option enabled, but I’ve learned that several don’t. I learned that because I didn’t get texts from them until after I left work, (and disconnected from the work WiFi).
Even worse, group texts don’t have any option to automatically fall back. So I don’t receive any group texts at all while I’m at work, but the senders have no way of knowing that. In fact, there have been several instances in recent memory of friends/family being left out of the loop on plans, because they weren’t receiving RCS for some unknown reason, which meant they missed an entire group text conversation.
My father’s phone is particularly bad about it. It’s an iPhone, and he’ll just randomly stop receiving RCS until he toggles his cell service off and back on again via airplane mode. But who the hell would think to toggle airplane mode, when there is no indication that they aren’t receiving something? It’s a catch-22, where he doesn’t get any notification that something is wrong, because he doesn’t know he’s supposed to be getting notifications at all. There’s no way for him to prove a negative, so the only way for him to reliably get RCS is to toggle airplane mode every few minutes. Which isn’t really a feasible use-case scenario.
I wouldn’t trust RCS even through a VPN. Its still going through carriers AFAIK, which means they get it in plain text.
i thought it was stupid before, and I still do
AFAIK there’s no free as in freedom implementation and only works with propriety apps and I read google messages refuses to use RCS on rooted/unofficial systems. So that’s a big no.
Another big problem is, people who don’t have mobile internet and unknowingly have it enabled (aka most people who still use SMS) won’t get the message until they connect to WiFi or some time passes.
A good rule of thumb is : does any of the participant maintain the backend?
If not then you are dependent on at least a 3rd party. If that 3rd party is not entirely open, meaning at least
then basically you should consider that this 3rd party owns your group, there is no expectation of privacy in it, it can be closed in an instant, messages can be modified without you knowing it, etc.
TL;DR: bad.
I don’t think I can use it on my phone since it’s too old…
They should’ve worked to use xmpp or matrix as their replacement for SMS, but they chose an alternative that let’s corpos run servers and not anyone else.
Fucking garbage technology.
Alternarive to SMS maybe. No alternative to chat apps, because carrier-controlled.
You can use Signal between Android and.iOS, i know this as I (android user) use it all the time to msg contacts using Signal on their iphone, don’t use RCS ffs.
The people I know with ios still haven’t figured it out.
It’s nice that Androids can finally send me high quality images and participate in group chats without as much jank. Still not as good as an iMessage group but a lot more bearable.
Does iOS use RCS everywhere, or only if your and/or the recipient’s phone carrier are specifically supported?
Now its not just the carriers now get your texts unencrypted, apple and google do too.
Use matrix, XMPP, or simpleX if you want something private.
Any FOSS apps on Android that support it? Even Google Voice (which I use for work) doesn’t seem to support it. I still get messages like “so and so reacted to your message”.