Hope you like RCS, because Google Messages plans to remove this easy way to turn it off

I like RCS. I hate it was kidnapped by Google and they’re the only ones hosting the servers instead of the carriers as it was supposed to be. Instead of the agnostic infrastructure we were supposed to have, we got another corporate monopoly hell scape.

Was it kidnapped? Or did the carriers basically dump it on the fire stations doorstep? Not really googles fault if every carrier was too lazy to run their own RCS servers…

Then federate, decentralize it, or abandon it to die. Let’s not pretend Google is saving something sacred like a baby’s life. They took up RCS to compete with Apple. This is not a tragedy, it was made this way by design.

Google didn’t develop RCS, GSMA did. All google did was purchase the startup that actually developed a good implementation of it.

This isnt some gatekeeping exercise from google, they had nothing to do with RCS’s initial design and release. The carriers are entirely to blame for dragging their feet, although some are finally implementing their own servers (China is entirely RCS without google).

As for “federate it, decentralise it”, thats how it already is. Its called “hubbing”, but its basically federation. The networks run their server, and the federate messages between them. It isn’t centralised at all.

Never said they developed it. They bought it for a reason though.

Can we self-host a RCS server and hub with all the RCS network?

Google didn’t buy it, it’s an open standard.

What google did is host RCS infrastructure and have the worlds most popular messaging client.

You can absolutely setup an RCS server, build an FCS client that has the appropriate keys and access, put RCS relays in important peering points a over the world, and roll that out to millions of ppl yourself.

Sort of like nuclear power; you could probably build a reactor yourself, but it’s a heavy lift plus there are players that don’t want you to.