this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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1038
Google is silently blocking RCS messages on rooted Android phones and custom ROMs (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
170 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] [email protected] 167 points 5 months ago (4 children)

God, it's like they don't want RCS to succeed.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 5 months ago (1 children)

RCS is just stupid. When I was still building phones a decade ago we had some operators ask for it - but after reading the standards decided to just ignore it and hope it passes. Pretty much everybody did that, until google got interested - presumably because they figured it'd be a good way to get control of messaging on a lower level. As that's exactly what RCS is: control of messaging, and ideally the option to charge for it, just like SMS and MMS before that.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What's really bizarre is that Google had the chance to be a dominant player in messaging when they made Hangouts the default SMS client on Android. Instead, they backpedaled and let Hangouts wither into obscurity. I'm mostly glad they screwed that up, but also puzzled.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Hangouts was the best thing going for a while there. Of course they had to goog it up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Hangouts/Google Talk was great when they had federation and allowed 3rd party clients. After they locked that it went to shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I miss the golden age when we had AIM, ICQ, or GoogleTalk, etc all on the client of our choosing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I would go so far as to say Google Chat today is better than Google RCS.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago

More like they need to have everyone use the app so that they can offer "AI Assistant" features through it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2024/01/28/new-details-free-ai-upgrade-for-google-and-samsung-android-users-leaks/

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

With UI decisions like the shortcut bar, they really don't. I switched to another SMS app because I couldn't stand it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

That other app? Cantstandya.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

They want it to succeed. And they (Google with Apple) will be the only ones having to say who can send a message.