alt Hacker NewsYeah what would really get me onboard with RCS if it were actually open, if I could choose which RCS provider I wanted to use. Like a privacy-driven foundation similar to Signal. Someone I could actually trust.
But that would mean that the entire protocol would have to be made open including E2EE, and that other parties besides Google and the telcos would be allowed to run servers. Those things are very unlikely to happen.
I wouldn't be particularly surprised if they're hiding the spec / charging pointless $$$ to reduce access, but I was under the impression that it would be available, like RCS's spec itself. e.g.:
the RCS v3 page: https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/netwo...
^ which links to the E2EE v1 spec: https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/netwo... ("download" is a direct link to a pdf file)
and https://media.gsma.com/assets/2026/rcs/RCC.16+v3.0.pdf is v3.0, which appears possibly detailed enough at a glance, and there seems to be a v4 and I can't download v2 due to a broken page. but I have no idea what's currently supported anywhere in practice, if any.