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by CuriousCosmic 800 days ago
So when does RCS get a public API? I like google messages and all but I'd kill to see support open up to any of the other messaging apps that exist.

And as it is, the API restriction that's locking RCS support in is entirely an arbitrary one.

1 comments

Never, because RCS doesn't work that way.

However, someone has created an open source prototype RCS client: https://github.com/Hirohumi

It supports only carrier-provided RCS, though. No one seems to have even attempted to connect it to Google's carrier-bypassing RCS service.

It's not that RCS doesn't work that way.

RCS support is actually embedded in android (albeit as a closed source rcsprovider implementation). They just won't actually open up the API (That they expose to other orgs that pay them enough like samsung for their apps).

There is no good technical reason why the RCS API needs to restrict itself to only pre-authorised applications vs making RCS access a permission for the user to approve.

If one is content with remote-controlling Google's proprietary implementation, it can unofficially be done by leveraging the Web UI: https://github.com/mautrix/gmessages

That however does come with all the drawbacks of adversarial interoperability.