Is anyone using RCS (and prefers it)?

Question

Android user here, using SMS only for OTP and all my friends use WhatsApp. While I'd prefer something that's not Facebook owned, it's hard to see RCS ever becoming a better option, especially given it still doesn't to my understanding guarantee E2E encryption.Am I missing something here? Did anyone actually switch to RCS and prefers it over alternatives like Signal?

bisby · Accepted Answer

I prefer Signal, but a lot of my friends are iPhone users and just use iMessage amongst themselves. Android RCS to iMessage is a step up over SMS (RCS doesn't result in super low res videos and pictures).
The thing about social interactions is that you don't always get to dictate "We're using Signal now." And if the other people are using iPhones and aren't going to use Signal, RCS makes sense.
RCS does NOT work properly on custom roms unless you have some google integrity check hacks mixed in, and its a constant cat and mouse of google breaking those hacks... so if your messages are timely, you want SMS, or a google approved android.

solardev · Answer

Yes, I use RCS with my partner (Android) and friends (mix of Android/iPhone). It's better than raw SMS/MMS because it can send read receipts, typing indicators, high-res photos and videos and such.
Nobody in my friend group cares about privacy enough to switch to Signal. And in the US, we don't use WhatsApp, just texts.
Mostly all the Snowden & Assange stuff was met with a collective shrug here. Only some of our states have privacy laws at all, and most of our economy is built off of invading it, so... encrypted comms just isn't part of the everyday mindset, I guess.