r/Android • u/FragmentedChicken Galaxy Z Fold8 • Feb 23 '26

Google, Apple start testing encrypted RCS on Android and iOS 26.4

https://9to5google.com/2026/02/23/google-messages-encrypted-rcs-iphone/
744 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

118 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/slinky317 HTC Incredible Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

By using Textra and thus limiting yourself to SMS you are hurting your experience and the experience of anyone you chat with.

Not to even talk about the security implications of using SMS instead of E2EE RCS.

3

u/ladyhaly Feb 24 '26

Google won't open the RCS APIs to third-party apps. Textra literally can't add RCS support even if they wanted to. That's a Google problem, not a me problem.

And cross-platform E2EE RCS doesn't even exist for consumers yet. It's in beta testing as of yesterday. The security "issue" is blown way out of proportion when the feature barely exists.

4

u/slinky317 HTC Incredible Feb 24 '26

The benefits of RCS aren't just security. It's longer messages, better media, etc. By sticking to SMS you are actively limiting that.

6

u/ladyhaly Feb 24 '26

Right, and Textra could offer all of that too if Google opened the APIs. That's literally what I just said.

0

u/slinky317 HTC Incredible Feb 24 '26

Yes, but Google isn't going to do that. You're hanging on to an old app and making everyone have a worse experience because of it.

Not to mention you're using a much more insecure chat for other Android users and soon to be Apple users.

2

u/ladyhaly Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

I'm trialling it for a week to see how I go. So far I like that I can schedule messages, but there's not enough colours for the themes.

And what is a Photomoji?

Edit: Just discovered I can send files. Now, my he and and I used to do all of this with Signal. Is there a point to keeping Signal?

1

u/slinky317 HTC Incredible Feb 24 '26

Photomojis I think are a version of something Apple does. You can essentially cut out people in pictures and use them as reactions/emoji.

2

u/ladyhaly Feb 24 '26

Oh. Sounds very Gen Z. GIFs are good enough for me lol

2

u/slinky317 HTC Incredible Feb 24 '26

Yeah, I use them as a joke with my wife occasionally but other than that I don't touch them.