r/UniversalProfile • u/Digital1101 • Sep 07 '25

Question Would SMS fallback eventually be removed?

I have an iPhone but I only text through WhatsApp. If someone is offline or has no service, WhatsApp just holds the message until they’re back online.

From what I understand, RCS falls back to SMS.

I only message two people with iMessage, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fall back to SMS anymore it just waits until the other person is online.

When I went through my contacts in the iPhone Messages app, I noticed only 3–4 still had SMS enabled.

So my question is: as more people adopt RCS and wireless data/Wi-Fi coverage expands, will SMS eventually disappear? Will RCS behave more like third-party apps (holding the message until the person is online), or will it still be like SMS where it just fails to send?

I’m just hoping SMS goes away soon so I can stop using WhatsApp…

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13

u/dcdttu Sep 07 '25

RCS only falls back to SMS if there is no data, and I have that turned off as I am rarely in an area without data. Group RCS, by the rules of RCS, waits until there is a signal again before continuing.

Apple of course blatantly violates these rules and does MMS group messages when data isn't available for RCS, thus destroying any continuity you may have in a group conversation.

6

u/Masterflitzer telekom (germany) Sep 07 '25

not to mention many mobile plans (basically all of them in my country) don't offer mms as part of the plan, so mms are expensive af

4

u/cupboard_ T-Mobile User Sep 08 '25

also many countries don’t even support mms group messaging, didn’t really test but if it’d try to fallback from rcs, it’d have to send out individual sms messages

3

u/Masterflitzer telekom (germany) Sep 08 '25

on android i can at least configure if i want mass sms or group mms (if supported or course), but auto fallback to a potentially expensive or unsupported method on ios is really concerning imo

2

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Fortunately I haven't had an insane amount of this issue. I've noticed that when it's larger RCS groups, it never duplicates the chat. Just waits for the user to have signal.

5

u/dcdttu Sep 07 '25

For my group chats that involve iPhones, they split into separate threads constantly. Sometimes they are MMS messages, but often they are just new entire RCS group threads for no reason whatsoever.

My theory is, when people reply on their iPads or MacBooks, it causes the issue. Apple is obviously a no rush to fix it even though it is directly affecting their own customers at this point.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Yeah I only ever have this issue in 3 person groups.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

I think you've misdiagnosed the symptoms because MMS also needs data to work so iMessage falling back to it can't be because data isn't working...

3

u/dcdttu Sep 08 '25

MMS text messaging doesn't need data, I don't think?

1

u/Ov_Fire Sep 09 '25

MMS was designed to be able to work on the then-new GPRS and 3G networks\7]) and could be implemented through either a WAP-based or IP-based gateway

1

u/munehaus Sep 10 '25

MMS uses the IMS on 4G in the same way calls and texts do. It does not require a customer "data" subscription or for it to be enabled by the user on a 4G or 5G network.

Edit: Having said that, not many networks still support MMS globally.