RCS and iMessage are essentially just separate internet based messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp. iMessage doesn’t even require a phone number if you’re only messaging other iMessage users. The only difference being, they CAN message phone numbers, but if it isn’t “their” app, they’ll fall back to using SMS. iMessage has implemented RCS if messaging someone using Google Messages, but it is not encrypted, so essentially the same thing as SMS from a privacy and security perspective.
As far as understanding it, both carriers and Google/Apple need to pay for infrastructure. For carriers it is cell towers, for internet based stuff it is servers. Carriers need you to pay for the infrastructure because they offer a single service (kind of, all 3 sell your data). Google & Apple make all kinds of money off of you in many ways, and getting high adoption for their apps makes them more powerful.
Yaky@slrpnk.net 12 hours ago
Free, sure. There is only one app that does it, with huge dependency on Google and/or carrier (whoever runs the servers), which could just… stop working one day, like it did for me.
BruisedMoose@piefed.social 12 hours ago
Google would never just give up on a product that people love!
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 11 hours ago
I know you’re joking, but for those who don’t know: killedbygoogle.com and gcemetery.co