Here’s the list of US carriers that now support RCS messaging on iPhones:
- AT&T
- C Spire
- Consumer Cellular
- Cricket
- FirstNet
- H20 Wireless
- Metro by T-Mobile
- PureTalk
- Red Pocket
- Spectrum
- T-Mobile
- TracFone / Straight Talk
- US Cellular
- Verizon
- Visible
- Xfinity Mobile
Fuck RCS, it’s too little, twenty years too late.
Why would I want to use a “new” messaging service that’s ass-backwards by being hardware/device bound? It’s completely antithetical to design concepts from 30+ years ago?
XMPP provided more, 20 years ago.
I was asking myself the same question: Why do we even need this? Why is it being discussed? The answer is that Google is trying to leverage a heavily used tool—SMS—as a key component of security and identity verification. I’m talking about banks and government entities globally. Encouraging people to rely on it will reinforce real identity and, naturally, provide control to those we all know are eager to seize it. Google’s strategy here is similar to what they did with Gmail: taking control of a key pillar of identity.
Because it’s better than what we have. And people are too dumb to know any better.