SMS
SMS is an acronym for Short Message Service, an early system for cellphones to send text messages to each other. You might also have heard of its older brother MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service, which allowed for things like images and group texts. The first text message, “Merry Christmas” was sent in 1992, during the Cretaceous period. We still use SMS today, which is too bad, because it has serious flaws.
When two iPhones text each other, they communicate using iMessage’s encrypted communication protocol. Newer Android phones have largely moved over to RCS (Rich Communication Services), which allows for end-to-end encryption and lots of other neat features. But when iPhones and Androids text each other, it gets sent over regular old, unencrypted SMS, which leaves users vulnerable and prevents things like reactions or audio messages from working. This is decidedly Apple’s fault.
Google, the maker of Android, wants to solve this problem. Apple refuses to adopt RCS, or to make iMessage interoperable. Why? It might have something to do with keeping Apple users locked in its system, which company executives said explicitly in internal emails. Which is a shame, because it means Apple users have to suffer, even though they’ve spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on the company’s products.
