RCS is just a standard, much like how SMS is just a standard. Google’s Messaging app is just one implementation of it, though it probably is the most popular in the US it is not the only one, nor is Google able to decide who cannot use it. Carriers typically have their own, though you may have recently heard that T-Mobile decided to switch over to Google’s.

As someone else said RCS is just the new global standard replacing SMS that apple does not want to support because it weakens their walled garden.

Because most people don’t really understand the specifics of what they are railing against and/or arguing for. They just read “big bad Apple is being eViL” and get on the complaint train without really understanding what they are advocating for.

That’s why Apple has been cagey about the whole thing. It’s Google’s tech. Their patents. Their way. Of course they are going to weaponize it because that’s where we are with software these days.

The answer isn’t RCS and Apple knows it. It’s trading iMessage for a merger with gMessage, a hybrid of the two with Apple losing half of its control. For a pretty meek gain.

The answer is to come up with an open standard that all messaging apps adopt and build on. So we can eventually move away from shitty SMS. Neither Google, or Apple should control the framework.

It works on Textra just fine

RCS is an open standard created by GSMA, not a Google product. Google and Samsung just have the most popular “flavours” of RCS