Rich Communication Services: Nobody uses it, nobody wants it, but analysts reckon it's on the verge of a breakthrough
- Reference: 1590573853
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/27/rcs_juniper_research/
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But despite over a [2]decade's worth of work, it's still very much a non-entity in the messaging space, with Juniper Research forecasting that just 16 per cent of devices will support the tech by the end of the year.
The analysts at Juniper estimate the total number of RCS-enabled smartphones in circulation to be 744 million. And while that sounds like a lot, it is just a drop in the bucket compared to the global mobile market. Canalys fingers the global number of 2019 smartphone shipments at [3]1.36 billion . And that doesn't include the millions of KaiOS and "dumb" phones sold each year, as well as the trend for people to hold onto their mobiles for increasingly long times.
There's another caveat: RCS-enabled phones don't necessarily translate into RCS users.
The molasses-like rollout of RCS is partially due to carrier and vendor apathy – not to mention that it's a convoluted mess from a technological perspective. There's only really one firm that's all-in on RCS, and that's [4]Google , which sees it as a remedy to its messaging app woes, as well as a potential rival to Apple's iMessage (even though it's an open standard that uses a federated architecture, with carriers playing an oversized role).
But there are other more significant market shifts that point towards why RCS hasn't taken off. In 2007, when the GSMA was first toiling on the foundational work for the spec, there was no WhatsApp. WeChat wasn't a thing. ZuckBot 2000 was still one year away from launching Facebook Chat – which would later become Messenger.
At that point, an overhaul of SMS looked sensible. But in 2020, it feels a bit outdated. The industry has moved on.
Still, Juniper reckons there's still life in these bones, writing that RCS is on "the verge of disrupting the mobile messaging market" with carrier support improving and increased software-level support from Google.
Bold words, but it's still not clear what "disrupting" actually means in the context of RCS. Will it become a viable alternative to WhatsApp (1.6 billion monthly active users), Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion), and WeChat (1.1 billion)? Or will it continue to occupy the fringes of the messaging space? ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/20/sms_lives_omg/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/18/joyn_joyn/
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/31/apple_leapfrogs_sammy_and_huawei/
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/23/google_jibe_rich_communications_services/
Well, there is Signal. It is almost, but not quite, perfect (open source, good encryption, has no interest in collecting your data). However it relies on centralized servers and that's not so good - decentralized is better.
messaging app that doesn't give all your data to Apple, Google, Facebook or the Chinese government. RCS is still very much needed.
It'll no doubt get used to spam users with ads. 'Rich communication' ads - got to be more annoying than texts.
Why would Google...
want this to be the messaging to end all messaging unless there was some way that they could slurp the data? They won't be doing this out of the kindness of their heart that's for sure.
So...
RCS is still very much NOT needed.
There fixed it for you.
It just depends who you think is the lesser of all evils (perm one from Apple, Chinese Government, Google or Facebook) in you choice.
TBH, NONE of the above tickles my fancy.
"RCS is still very much needed."
The idea that RCS isn't designed from the ground up to harvest all your personal data and bombard you with ads is amusing, but unfortunately incorrect. There is a reason Google are the sole organisation seriously signed up to the protocol.
Can't say I feel a need for RCS or any of the other messaging services. I only use SMS a couple of times a month.
My banks and a whole lot of other services like DPD all use SMS, which means that for those of us who use phones as tools and avoid the various borgs, it's pretty much game over.
I've tried RCS
I've tried using RCS:
Only available on some Android phones, connected to some networks, using Google's messaging app.
So not enough other people use it.
Re: So not enough other people use it.
And long may that continue...
WhatsApp = no way
WeChat = even piglet wouldn't use it
Facebook... Messenger = hahahahaha! oh you were serious?
> At that point, an overhaul of SMS looked sensible. But in 2020, it feels a bit outdated. The industry has moved on.
The industry may have moved on but there is still a need for a modern messaging app that doesn't give all your data to Apple, Google, Facebook or the Chinese government. RCS is still very much needed.