[throw0101a]

> iMessages are tied to Apple serial numbers, making spamming a lot harder.

Except that you can already get spam "in iMessage" because the iMessage app is also the (default) SMS app on iPhones, and so anyone can send an SMS to your phone number and you'll receive it.

> RCS would bring the spam protection to sms levels, i.e. absolutely non-existant

You already have no protection against SMS on your iMessage app, so not having protection against RCS spam is no worse than the current situation in that regard, but at least RCS has extra things like group chat which would be nice for cross-platform interoperability.

[jaywalk]

> Except that you can already get spam "in iMessage" because the iMessage app is also the (default) SMS app on iPhones

The app is Messages, the protocol is iMessage. Don't confuse the two, it's an important distinction. There is practically zero iMessage spam.

[throw0101a]

Nothing you have said invalidates my point:

* You can get spam in the app because it displays SMS.

* If it implemented RCS you could also get spam in the app too.

* But RCS also gives you extra capabilities.

How is this a worse situation?

[jaywalk]

The point is that if we're going to finally replace SMS (which we should) then we should replace it with a protocol that's better. Saying "you can get spam on SMS, so who cares if RCS can spam you too?" is ridiculous. Maybe 20 years ago RCS would have been a nice protocol. Nowadays, it's utter trash. We need a proper, interoperable standard that doesn't involve carriers. RCS is not even remotely it.

[throw0101a]

And in the meantime, I—an iPhone owner—should not be able to have group chats with my Android-using friends?

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

RCS may not be perfect, but it seems to have nice things over and above SMS. I have no objections to adding more nice things to RCS (or whatever comes after it), but why shouldn't we implement the nice things of RCS in the meantime?

[jaywalk]

For all intents and purposes, progress stopped with carriers after MMS came around. Hey, you can send pics and videos now! And group messages! It's good!

RCS requires carriers to implement it. We don't need RCS, we need something better. I'm not opposed to stopgaps, but the complexity involved with RCS makes it much more than just a stopgap. Which is why it needs to die.

[throw0101a]

And should RCS die we're stuck with SMS/MMS. Awesome.

[danaris]

If we globally adopt RCS now, we're likely to be stuck with it for the next 20 years.

I'd rather hold out for something that's more than a tiny incremental improvement over SMS.

[throw0101a]

As opposed to the current situation of being stuck with SMS/MMS?

I'd rather move the ball forward with RCS and try to get something better, rather than just trying get something better—with no guarantee that it actually will happen, in which case we lost even the "incremental" opportunity of RCS.