Google Messages needs this fix before iPhone RCS support lands

Sooner or later this 12 months, the unthinkable will lastly occur: iPhones will help wealthy communication providers (RCS). This may knock just a few bricks out of the notorious “walled backyard” that forestalls iPhone customers who rely solely on iMessage from successfully speaking with Android customers. Whereas individuals outdoors america have already solved this interoperability downside by way of the usage of platform-agnostic apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, and so forth.), some iPhone customers within the US are so hooked on iMessage that they’ll ostracize family and friends and even refuse up to now somebody who initiates the “inexperienced bubble” of their conversations.

Sadly, the inexperienced bubble isn’t going anyplace. RCS help, nonetheless, will enable a number of notable new options to work between the native messaging apps of Android telephones and iPhones. These embrace learn receipts, typing indicators, location sharing, and the flexibility to ship high-resolution media.

That final one is essentially the most notable. Bear in mind again in 2022 when Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner made the utterly embarrassing “purchase your mother an iPhone” quip to an iPhone person who was asking why they will’t share movies with their mother, an Android person? Nicely, RCS help will lastly clear up that situation, and that individual received’t want to purchase their mother an iPhone. When that every one went down, I wrote an opinion piece about how Cook dinner’s assertion was past terrible from an environmental perspective but additionally from the perspective of its personal customers, one in all whom was bodily proper there in entrance of him telling him how a lot they need to talk with their mom successfully!

With all this in thoughts — and as a diehard Android person who has personally skilled “inexperienced bubble hate” — you possibly can think about how excited I used to be to check out RCS on an iPhone for myself. It’s at present solely obtainable in iOS 18 beta within the US, so it’s not extensively rolled out, however I acquired it arrange on my iPhone 12 and began checking what the expertise could be like as soon as Apple rolls it out formally someday later this 12 months.

Sadly, in my testing, I discovered there’s going to be an enormous downside, and it’s not Apple’s fault; it’s Google’s.

Within the US, in case you’re on Android and utilizing RCS, you’re probably utilizing Google Messages. Though Samsung Messages additionally helps RCS in some places, let’s deal with Google’s app for now. We’ll get to Samsung’s in a bit.

Though Google Messages might be one of the best messaging app you need to use for texting on Android, it sadly compresses the photographs it sends considerably. This isn’t actually information, nevertheless it won’t be one thing you’re conscious of. To catch you up, in 2023, Google added a brand new toggle in Messages’ settings known as Ship images quicker. That is routinely toggled on and compresses all pictures you ship. To see the toggle for your self, open Messages, faucet your profile avatar, then go to Messages settings, and the toggle would be the first one you see.

Right here’s an instance of what occurs when you will have this toggled on. The unique picture (captured with a Galaxy S24 Extremely) is on the left, and the picture despatched by way of Google Messages (acquired by a Pixel 8 Professional) is on the proper. Notice how a lot decrease of a decision the acquired picture has, in addition to its important discount in each megapixel depend and file measurement:

As you possibly can see, the unique 50MP picture was decreased to 1.9MP, slashed all the way down to a 1,200 x 1,600 decision, and decreased in file measurement by a whopping 98% to simply 147KB. Truthfully, this isn’t a lot better than what you’d obtain simply sending a photograph as an MMS.

Naturally, you’ll assume that in case you turned off that Ship images quicker toggle, you’ll then ship uncompressed pictures. Nevertheless, that isn’t the case. Try this second instance under, with the identical setup as above, however with that toggle turned off:

On this instance, we see much less compression than with that toggle switched on, however we’re nonetheless getting a really, very compressed picture. So far as file measurement goes, as an alternative of a 98% compression charge, turning off the toggle brings that all the way down to a 93% compression charge. Wow, a lot decision, so higher.

In different phrases, in terms of sending images by way of RCS in Google Messages — even between flagship Android telephones — you will have two decisions: ludicrously compressed or tremendous compressed. This hasn’t been a secret or something, so that you would possibly already know this. I wasn’t conscious it was this dangerous, although, so I can solely think about at the very least a portion of individuals studying this didn’t both.

No matter whether or not individuals knew about this or not, one factor most customers received’t know but is that Apple Messages, within the overwhelming majority of circumstances, does not compress pictures when sending them by way of RCS.

I did this similar take a look at on my iPhone 12 with iOS 18 beta and RCS help activated. Beneath on the left, you’ll see the unique picture captured with the iPhone, and subsequent to it, you’ll see the acquired picture on each the Galaxy S24 Extremely and Pixel 8 Professional. Notice that nothing adjustments:

You would possibly assume the picture measurement is pretty small right here, because of Apple’s HEIC file kind. Maybe there’s no compression as a result of the file measurement is sufficiently small that it doesn’t matter? I examined this, too, by sending a really giant JPG that I downloaded from the web. It seems that the iPhone will compress large pictures earlier than they exit, however solely the file measurement is affected, with the megapixel depend and determination remaining unaffected:

I examined this out with different pictures with smaller file sizes and noticed that there’s no compression for pictures beneath round 40MB. In truth, in a single experiment, a 7.8MB downloaded picture got here by way of at 11MB, so there was some form of decompression occurring there.

Curiously, Samsung Messages on Galaxy smartphones — when you’ve got entry to RCS and the right settings — doesn’t compress despatched pictures both. In areas the place RCS help is offered on Samsung Messages, you possibly can tweak the app’s settings to ship images uncompressed (Settings > Chat settings > Shared picture high quality > Authentic). Once you try this, images arrive as marketed, i.e., utterly uncompressed.

I’d additionally wish to level out that every one three of my gadgets — the iPhone 12, Galaxy S24 Extremely, and Pixel 8 Professional — have their very own T-Cellular SIMs put in. I believed that possibly this was a T-Cellular situation, however nope: I had Android Authority employees members from across the globe use RCS in Google Messages to ship high-res images to my iPhone, and each single one got here by way of closely compressed.

In different phrases, sending ultra-compressed pictures is a Google Messages downside, not an Android, RCS, or service downside.

So, to summarize, this experiment proves that when Apple Messages customers ship a photograph over RCS, Google Messages customers will get a picture with the identical decision and megapixel depend (and, typically, the identical file measurement) as what was despatched. On the flip facet, when a Google Messages person sends a photograph to an Apple person, the picture that lands on the iPhone shall be shrunk down by as much as 98%.

This can be a actually huge downside, and Google solely has a brief period of time to repair it.

It’s no secret that an enormous swathe of iPhone customers assume that iPhones are universally higher than Android telephones. Apple does a terrific job advertising this message, particularly relating to picture seize. I’m sure that the majority iPhone customers, if requested, would in all probability argue that iPhone cameras are superior to Android cameras. Nevertheless, a flagship Android digicam is, by most metrics, superior to an iPhone digicam by way of goal evaluation. We’ve confirmed this time and time once more in our digicam shoot-outs, corresponding to in our pitting of a Pixel 8 Professional in opposition to an iPhone 15 Professional Max. The outcomes converse for themselves.

Regardless of this, Apple customers are basing their opinions on what they see of their day-to-day lives, and what they’ve seen for years isn’t good. So you possibly can’t actually blame them for purchasing into the Apple hype. For years now, individuals who solely use iMessage have solely seen trash images from Android customers as a result of these images come to them by way of MMS, which compresses them all the way down to the purpose that they’re pixelated gobbledygook. Why wouldn’t they assume Android telephones have horrible cameras?

With RCS help, Google lastly has the chance to point out iPhone customers that Android cameras aren’t terrible. It’s an enormous deal.

Nevertheless, if the images Google Messages customers ship to iPhone customers by way of RCS are nonetheless super-compressed, the previous misconceptions about Android telephones will proceed to prevail. Clearly, these RCS picture examples I’ve proven listed below are nonetheless a lot better than MMS, however what’s going to iPhone customers say after they get super-compressed pictures from Android customers and Android customers get uncompressed, full-quality snaps from iPhone customers? If something, that can have the alternative impact of what Google ought to need, with iPhone customers being like, “Ugh, even with RCS, these Android images are nonetheless fairly dangerous,” and with Android customers being like, “Hey, these iPhone pictures look nice! Perhaps I ought to change.” That’s, clearly, not good for Android.

Google would probably argue that Android customers can ship full-resolution pictures and movies by way of a Google Images hyperlink as an alternative, which works throughout any platform. Whereas that is actually a viable choice, it’s an additional step that most individuals merely don’t take. It additionally solely works if individuals have their images in Google Images and both pay for area above the free 15GB threshold or solely have a small assortment that stays beneath that restrict. Both means, sending that hyperlink can’t compete with the comfort and ease of simply sending the picture itself to the chat, so Google can’t use that linking system as an excuse — particularly when Samsung and Apple provide the streamlined system customers anticipate.

I sincerely hope Google addresses this situation quickly. Because the previous saying goes, you solely get one likelihood at a primary impression, and if Google Messages doesn’t have the flexibility to equal the iPhone in terms of RCS messaging proper from Day One, it’s going to take a variety of work to undo that repute afterward down the street. Because it stands proper now, Google Messages has years of dangerous blood associated to picture sharing to counteract already, and my testing reveals that it’s at present behind the curve on this key space — and Apple Messages’ RCS help isn’t even steady but.

That is your one likelihood, Google. Make it depend.