In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.
Apple’s decision comes amid pressure from regulators and competitors like Google and Samsung. It also comes as RCS has continued to develop and become a more mature platform than it once was.
Nothing phone in shambles.
We need to thank the nothing phone for this. They’re only responding like this after severe market pressure. Thank you Nothing
Do you honestly think Apple cares about Nothing in any capacity? They are irrelevant and apply zero market pressure on Apple.
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
Edit: nvm https://twitter.com/MaxWinebach/status/1725223759244636320?s=20
iMessage is basically a non-player in the EU; Apple already has an extremely compelling legal argument against any regulation on that front. There’s no indication whatsoever that an announced workaround from a niche player had any bearing on Apple’s decision.
So what do we think was the motivation then?
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
They could throw a couple lawsuits at them for acting as a literal man in the middle (as in, man in the middle attack), decrypting iMessages and passing them to Android. That definitely adds a massive security issue too clueless iMessage users.
Beeper too. They got a lot of buzz a while back for a similar feature.
Still features like that would be kinda neat for all the devices that RCS don’t support, like Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, ChromeOS, HarmonyOS, Android Open Source Project, Ubuntu Touch, PostmarketOS…
It’s my understanding that they need a bunch of Apple hardware to serve as an intermediary, hence the extra monthly cost for… blue bubbles. Doesn’t seem like something that can be engineered without it.