John Gruber on Daring Fireball: The AT&T Data Breach Shows Why RCS Can’t Be Trusted and the Downside of Apple Adding Support for It in iOS 18

Ihnatko is right, but only if you believe that carrier-based message should remain the baseline. I do not. And it’s also a U.S.-centric viewpoint. In most countries around the world, platforms like WhatsApp, Line, or Facebook Messenger serve that role, as the baseline “everyone has it” messaging platform — and they’re better for it.

John writes a lot in this one and it’s worth a read, but I personally have the opposite opinion about RCS (not a surprise at all to longtime readers). I quoted this part because this is what really stands out to me as the difference in our opinions: of course I’d prefer people using messaging services that are encrypted, but I don’t think that means that we should cede all messaging communication to private companies, especially when it’s Meta handling those messages.

In my view, RCS is the next evolution of SMS and MMS. Whether it technically may be something new, that doesn’t matter, it’s good that there is a baseline messaging service that anyone can use that is cross-platform and not owned by any one company (despite seemingly many people thinking Google invented and owns RCS). Improving the baseline messaging option is valuable, and people who hate RCS with a passion can choose not to use it.

Now, if iOS let other apps send carrier messages for users, then iPhone owners could install Google Messages and get encrypted RCS with most Android users that way. Why not let people trust their messaging to a private company, right? If we’re supposed to trust our messaging with a private company anyway, why not let them handle our RCS messages as well?