Google is trying to shame Apple for adopting RCS with the #getthemessage campaign

Google is launching a new publicity campaign today to pressure Apple to adopt RCS, and Cross Platform Messaging Protocol This is supposed to be a successor to the old SMS and MMS standards.

The search giant has a new Get the message website It lays out a familiar set of arguments for why Apple should support the standard, which revolves around smoother messaging between iPhones and Android devices. And, of course, there’s also the hashtag #GetTheMessage to really get those viral juices flowing.

For most people, the problems Google describes are more familiar in the form of green bubbles indicating messages for Android users in Apple’s Messages app. While the iPhone app uses Apple’s iMessage to send texts between iPhones (complete with modern features like encryption, support for group chats, and high-quality photo and video transfers), it reverts to legacy SMS and MMS when sending a text message to the Android user. Not only do these messages appear in a green, discolored bubble, but they also crash many of the modern messaging features that people rely on.

To fix this, Google has been dropping a series of inaccurate tips in recent months for it to support Apple RCS, which offers most (but not all) of iMessage’s features in a protocol that can be used across both iOS and Android. The company said it hopes “every mobile operating system… upgrades to RCS” on stage At its annual developer conference this year as well as in Different Tweets over the months.

The iPhone maker has everything to gain from the current situation, which has a locking effect on customers. Provides seamless communication (but only between iMessage users) and turns green Android bubbles into micro-layer marks. That’s why Apple executives have admitted in internal emails that bringing iMessage to Android will be “injury [Apple] More than help us.“

Google’s arguments for RCS are not helped by standards slow and partial subtraction, which initially relied on carriers to add support. But the situation has improved since then Google effectively took charge in 2019Which means that RCS is now easily available almost everywhere around the world. This year saw the world’s largest Android manufacturer, Samsung, Switch to using Google’s RCS-compatible Messages app By default in the Galaxy S22 flagship range.

The Remote Control System (RCS) has also slowly gained feature parity with iMessage encryption. It now supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in the . format Individual conversationsAnd the E2EE in group chats It is scheduled for later this year.

So will Google’s new publicity campaign be the thing that finally pushes Apple to see the light and launch RCS support on its phones? Given the huge incentives that Apple has Not Playing the ball, I must say the chances of the search giant don’t look good. At this point, RCS adopter Apple feels the US is likely to collectively abandon iMessage and switch to a cross-platform encrypted messaging service like WhatsApp or Signal.