I have Android phones. Years ago I had problems with Google Messages so I’ve been using the Textra app, which is great (as is the customer support if you have questions).
Suddenly this month, Textra wasn’t working right - problems sending/receiving group messages, and problems if a person was an i-phone user.
The Textra rep helped, but some problems still persisted. I searched and apparently the answer is something to do with RCS messaging vs MMS messaging, and I had to change to Google Messages. Apparently only Google has RCS messaging, and made some kind of agreement with Apple, so now 3rd-party texting apps can’t work?
The group texts are now working, but I don’t like the GM app as much. It would be nice to have a choice…
Has anyone had similar issues with your texting app?
I have intermittent trouble with texting. My adult son has a Samsung phone, daughter has an iPhone. They both are on T-Mobile, and use Signal exclusively without issue. I have contemplated switching to that. I am flummoxed. How did texting become complicated?
Signal is a great open source app for communicating with other Signal users across multiple platforms. It’s not a drop-in replacement for standard (SMS/MMS/RCS) text messaging.
Google keeps support for RCS (the intended modern replacement for SMS/MMS text messaging) on Android to its own messages app. To the best of my knowledge, no third party Android apps currently support RCS and that’s been the case for years now.
Apple supports RCS on iPhone. There is no agreement between Apple and Google restricting third party messaging apps from using RCS on Android. That’s purely a Google thing. Generally, cross-platform (Android to iPhone) RCS messaging works well.
Third party Android text messaging apps are typically limited to SMS/MMS. While these protocols should continue working - including across platforms - these tecnologies literally date to the 1990s. I used - and very much liked - Textra back in the day, however, if one wants to use the more modern and robust RCS on Android doing so means moving - for better or worse - to Google Messages.
Alternatively, one might use messaging apps with their own ecosystems such as the previously mentioned by @dbrew826 Signal or WhatsApp but all parties to the conversation must use the same app.
Sincere thanks for such a comprehensive response (as always…) @rolandh !
I, too, am an exclusively Android user. With a daughter who happens to work for Apple, hence lives mostly in that ecosystem. So RCS with her was troublesome for some time, a year or more ago, but now is mostly seamless.
Your answer confirms my impression that Google Messages is the closest to a “universal” (based on phone numbers) messaging app available for us non-Apple holdouts. As you note, many alternatives are available - but require agreement among all intended participants about which platform to use.
My understanding is that RCS is google-only, and that no 3rd-party apps are allowed to use/access it. I’m not a tech person, but this is what I’ve read. So and app like Textra can’t do RCS; only SMS/MMS. I’m just puzzled why it has worked so well for so long, then suddenly this month…Zap! It doesn’t work for MMS/group texts.
Apple resisted cooperation with RCS for years, but now Apple phones work with RCS. I don’t know for certain, but think RCS was developed by an international standards group, available to all communications platforms. Just has evolved that only Google and Apple provide the the vast bulk of operating systems for mobile devices.
That’s my understanding too: RCS itself is a carrier/industry standard, not something Google invented from scratch. The practical catch is that on Android, Google Messages is the app that actually exposes it to users in a reliable way, while apps like Textra are still stuck with SMS/MMS.
So even if RCS is “open” in theory, it doesn’t feel very open from the user side if third-party texting apps can’t plug into it. That’s the frustrating part here: the standard may be broad, but the usable choices are still pretty narrow.