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.
My understanding is that it can be fully open but Google’s current implementation is not. That’s why the Google/Samsung messaging apps are the only texting apps that support it
Google and Samsung were the only apps to implement RCS (and the infrastructure to support the app) so far.
Nothing Google has done prevents any other organizations that want to invest the time and money from also implementing the standard.
https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/rcs/universal-profile/
Apple, on the other hand, doesn’t allow iMessage apps or servers that they didn’t create themselves. Or even an SMS/RCS app on their devices.
@NENathaniel
Hopefully someone more educated on the topic than me can jump in here haha, maybe I’ve been misinformed idk