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Google is silently blocking RCS messages on rooted Android phones and custom ROMs (www.androidauthority.com)

submitted 5 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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TL;DR

Users who have rooted their phone, have their bootloader unlocked or are using some custom ROMs report that their RCS messages are not being sent, even though RCS shows them as connected.
The Google Messages app does not show any error messages when blocking RCS messages of these users and does not send the messages out as SMS or MMS either.
Google famously campaigned for Apple to include RCS messaging in iMessage but is now blocking it for certain Android users.

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[-] Zak@lemmy.world 330 points 5 months ago

I think after XMPP, Google Talk, Wave, Hangouts, Allo, etc... people should know better than to adopt a messaging service from Google.

Yes, I know RCS is theoretically an open standard, but if Google can keep me from using it, it effectively belongs to Google.

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 117 points 5 months ago

Seriously. How many more chat apps from Google do we need to learn the lesson?

[-] FreshLight@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago

[-] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 80 points 5 months ago

Theoretically? RCS is not an open standard. It requires a license from GSMA.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 33 points 5 months ago

XMPP is not from Google. They just successfully pulled an EEE.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago

You'd think people would know better than to adopt anything from google.

[-] soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 3 points 5 months ago

It's not like everyone has a choice in the say. Given that many schools and workplaces rely on Google for something

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

There is a difference between adopting, and being forced to use, you know.

[-] Pantsofmagic@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

It's worse than that. Carriers have a say as well. For example, Samsung messages works with RCS in some markets but US providers currently lock it out. They only allow Google messages for RCS. Absolutely infuriating.

[-] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 6 points 5 months ago

RCS is monopolised by Google. Theoretically open ("maybe, in the future, once it's secure…"), but practically not.

[-] recapitated@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

XMPP was ok for its time

[-] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 19 points 5 months ago

Not only for its time! While flawed, I still see it as probably the best middle ground for messaging. It has evolved since then, its servers are easy to host and it has a variety of clients that support e2e.

[-] recapitated@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah I was using ejabberd around 2006 to connect some high touch clients, and it certainly got the job done.

[-] soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah, but I think that most of the clients are a bit dated in UX otherwise. There isn't really anything that I could suggest a friend to use

[-] moon@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah hard to call it an open standard when there's a single implementation that's closed source and goes off of spec.

[-] Zink@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

It seems crazy that Google is in last place for providing messaging services. It’s like:

Various 3rd party apps > Apple > Microsoft > Google

this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024

1036 points (99.1% liked)

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