Other alternatives:
A reason to avoid the stock SMS app on Android:
Android’s Messages, Dialer apps quietly sent text, call info to Google
Google’s Messages and Dialer apps for Android devices have been collecting and sending data to Google without specific notice and consent, and without offering the opportunity to opt-out, potentially in violation of Europe’s data protection law.
According to a research paper, “What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?” [PDF], by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas Leith, Google Messages (for text messaging) and Google Dialer (for phone calls) have been sending data about user communications to the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and to Google’s Firebase Analytics service.
“The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message exchange,” the paper says. “The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two handsets engaged in a phone call. Phone numbers are also sent to Google.”
The timing and duration of other user interactions with these apps has also been transmitted to Google. And Google offers no way to opt-out of this data collection.
Are there any alternatives for RCS?
No. Unless Google opens it up there won’t be.
The blame always goes to Apple, but iMessage was developed because no one could get their shit together with RCS. RCS predates iMessage by a few years.
It’s ridiculous that you have to use a third party if you want consistent cross platform messaging.
As anyone who has tried knows, getting people to switch to something else where I on Android can seamlessly connect to you on iOS is a huge hassle.
Apple are implementing RCS
They might only because they were forced by EU and the problem above remains. It will continue being a closed ecosystem with no other options for consumers.
It’s ridiculous that you have to use a third party if you want consistent cross platform messaging.
Nah, I like it that way.
SMS has been shit since it first came out. Well, to be fair, it was always a best-effort, cell-based “protocol”, so could never really grow out of it’s origins.
There was no value for cell vendors to replace it - it was low-cost for them, and they got a lot of data mining from it.
Apple saw an opportunity to make an app that made iPhone superior. So why not.
Anyone else could’ve done the same with a cross-platform app, but chose not too (except by then Apple had already said “only one SMS app”).
Still, an app on Android that integrated SMS with proper modern messaging would’ve made iMessage look like the holdout, instead of the reverse (which is what we have today) - and the pressure would be on Apple to compete.
Also, RCS is too little, too late, and being tied to a phone number it’s backwards.
Google implementation of RCS (Jibe I think it’s called) is proprietary. A third party client has to be explicitly allowed and supported by Google.
But are there any non Google third party clients?
Well the messages app that comes with samsung does support Google’s RCS as far as I know.
That’s not really a good option, although technically it is third party RCS app. Is there any FOSS or not device locked ones?
I am not aware of any.
People say Qksms is unmaintained, but Qksms has a lot of cool SMS features, and they simply work.
Why? Because SMS itself has received no updates for more than 20 years.
And will never get.
Now do RCS
I misunderstand how people claim to love QKSMS so much. I honestly think it is the least useful open source app in 2024.
No matter what I did I couldn’t send or receive video, and while I could receive photos, I had to open the stock texting app if I myself wanted to send somebody else a picture.
Maybe the app doesn’t fully work for people on adroid 13 or 14?
Sorry to hear that you have a problem with the Qksms. Usually, I don’t send or receive videos, so after I read your comment, I tried to send a short video to myself, and it worked. Yes, I have Android 14 as well.
The root cause of your problem must be in the connection settings, or the video is too large.
If you can connect your phone to the PC and open Android Studio, select the log tab, and you will see everything that is going on in your phone’s background. Now, try to send the video again. All errors related to that will appear as red text in the logs.
I hope you can fix it.
Really?
Thanks for this info.
What are the additions over the original of the fork? I know the original is no longer developed / rarely developed.
Why is it 37 mb? Stock Samsung sms app is 2 times smaller.
So far so good. Same options as QKSMS. Tried fossify before but that is not even near QKSMS or QuikSMS
Is there a dialer app and messaging app that support multi-device? I have a tablet and phone I like to keep synced
Deku SMS is the best alternative, supports AES encrypted SMS between users of the same app
