Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Wealthy Communication Providers, or RCS, is a messaging protocol now utilized by many throughout the US and the globe, nevertheless it wasn’t all the time the case. It took ages to realize momentum after its conception in 2007. Nonetheless, regardless of its accelerated adoption, the protocol nonetheless isn’t fairly as ubiquitous as SMS.
That is particularly obvious when utilizing the protocol to speak with these on Apple units. iPhones require RCS customers to be tied to a supported provider, leaving many who get pleasure from cheaper pay as you go plans out within the chilly. The truth that Apple solely lately adopted RCS additionally put a spanner within the works.
Contemplating all this, we requested customers if they’d skilled any issues with RCS messaging. Listed here are the outcomes from the ballot.
RCS stays a problematic protocol
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Most (46.4%) of the practically 2,200 voters observe that RCS “all the time works positive,” suggesting that the protocol is generally fuss-free. 38.1% declare that “it really works” however not with all contacts, whereas just below 11% don’t use it in any respect. Solely 4.5% of respondents observe that RCS has by no means labored for them.
Many within the feedback blame Apple for the fragmentation. “I want Apple would’ve simply executed RCS 5 years in the past when everybody else began utilizing it. However Tim “purchase your mom an iPhone” Cook dinner was extra considering gross sales than making the iPhone usable in a market not fully monopolized by Apple,” writes one reader.
It must be famous that our ballot was run on an article discussing the troubled RCS relationship between Android and iPhones; naturally, there’ll be some anti-Apple sentiment.
Apparently, customers past the US recommend that RCS stays secondary to different protocols and platforms. “I imply, truthfully, everybody I do know is on WhatsApp — besides for kids who’re too younger for the TOS. My 8-year-old makes use of RCS for members of the family beneath supervision, none of whom use an iPhone. I do know 50% of the inhabitants use iOS within the UK, however I do not know who they really are!”
There’s clearly a divide between platforms, apps, carriers, and areas that RCS might want to bridge earlier than it turns into as seamless as its predecessors. If it’ll ever obtain this stays to be seen.