Well, I guess someone missed the point that the carriers control SMS, not Google. 'Chat' is a consumer friendly name for Rich Communication Service (RCS) which is built on top of SMS. Google is simply advocating adoption of RCS after failing to get adoption for any of their own rich messaging protocols.
Blame lazy, cash obsessed carriers if you want to blame anyone. Next we will be blaming Google for making a phone app that only uses A5/1 stream cipher which the FBI can intercept and decrypt easily when they want to snoop[0].
Yes Google failed so many times to compete with iMessage, but they did try. I can't blame them to rethink their strategy, I mean most people are using SMS already, I for one would like to at least be able to send full res photos.
The first is that RCS is a flawed specification with inappropriate features for the modern world and shouldn't be adopted. It's being pushed hard by carriers, among others.
The second is that somehow Google has ended up as the punching bag for this gripe for the crime of implementing RCS. I mean... no, that's not really fair (and most of the folks here really should know better). But... meh. I mean, they still implemented it.
People need to stop looking to carriers and software giants to secure their privacy. There are multiple good options in the open source world for secure messaging. We need to be pushing those.
I bet the reporter willfully hung this around Google's neck though it was a carrier standard. The story's just bait-ier with an evil-Google vs people plot
Blame lazy, cash obsessed carriers if you want to blame anyone. Next we will be blaming Google for making a phone app that only uses A5/1 stream cipher which the FBI can intercept and decrypt easily when they want to snoop[0].
Yes Google failed so many times to compete with iMessage, but they did try. I can't blame them to rethink their strategy, I mean most people are using SMS already, I for one would like to at least be able to send full res photos.
[0] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/29/feds-fbi-wa...