#014 it′s all about Apple these days

Dear RCS community, these days it′s all about Apple. No meeting without talking about specifics as well as answering general questions. Still some confirmed pessimists are out there barking loud. But even if I am not allowed to talk about every detail and insight for now, a few points I can make/ confirm.

Top5 most raised questions nowaydays:

1. Will Apple revert their plans to integrate RCS as EU commission didn′t see iMessage as a gatekeeper service as they stated in Feb?

No! MNOs as well as Google are working closely with Apple to get the integration going. There is a lot to coordinate, align, adjust, finetune, but I am confident we′ll make it in time. Also what I read at the web is it might be a forced move by the Chinese more than the EU Digital Markets Act. Read here.

2. When does this will happen?

If everything work out as planned I expect RCS being part of the iOS18 release as of all public information to find on the web right now, e.g. here.

3. Isn′t that a bad move from security perspective for Apple user?

Absolutely not - some great argumentation I found at Apple′s forum itself. Look at the screenshot below. The full thread you can read here.

4. Will RBM be part of the integration or only P2P RCS support for interoperability?

RCS Business Messaging will be part of the integration as a logical step. The main intention is imho to join forces against OTT players taking over business messaging after already taking over the major part of todays P2P communication. Apple Business Chat as well as Android Business Messaging can′t compete with that OTTs as long as they stay in silos and don′t interoperate. Good read here.

5. Is their a correlation of Google shutting down (partly) Guest Clouded Countries and the Apple RCS adoption?

Can′t comment on that in detail but that kind of decisions are never made by accident. But even if a country/ network is covered by an Operator there are various contractual setups possible how RCS/RBM could be managed. Depends on the chosen setup the end user relationship, responsibilities and data ownership varies. We′ll see over the coming weeks and month what does this mean in detail and how does this affect that interoperability. Keep you posted.

Hope this was a bit helpful and have a great weekend everyone. Cheers!

Yours, #B