Google refuses to open up the Android RCS API to third party developers. To me this seems like an attempt to lock in users into their own messaging app, unlike SMS which does support third party apps like Textra.
Note that my usage has only occured on Google's Jibe servers using Pixel phones. Samsung Messages and alternative RCS servers might perform differently.
- Google change their approach on messaging every year or two - Google's RCS implementation has them hosting rather than the carrier (against spec) - Google's RCS only just added E2EE for their group messages (or is that still beta? I can't find confirmation on that), and did not contain any E2EE or even confirmation they'd add it at launch - Speaking of which, where was Googles interest in RCS pre-2019? - RCS is phone number linked (as a carrier service probably should be), so how would compatibility with iCloud/Apple users work?
It seems like a bad decision for Apple and a regression for users who broadly have solved the issue themselves by using alternatives (WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Matrix, etc).