SMS 2.0 (RCS) only available exclusively to Google patrons -- at least in my area.

fedia.io Sending a gratis SMS to Belgian GSM subscribers impossible? No SMS-email gateways? SMS 2.0 (RCS) only for Google patrons… - Brussels - Fedia

Mobile carriers in [many countries](http://www.arkaye.com/IntlEmail-SMSGateways60809.htm) provide a free email→SMS gateway service, so if you have no SMS capability or credit, or you are outside the country you can still get an SMS to someone using just email....

RCS seems to be replacing email-SMS gateways. RCS is supposedly an open standard, but apparently if you do not have Android 8.1 or newer, you cannot use RCS to send an SMS in Belgium.

In principle, iiuc, you should be able to use a desktop app or browser to send an RCS msg. But for some reason it’s a shitshow.

2 comments

@Doodle Jump RCS has potential, but its limitations, like requiring Android 8.1+ and poor integration with desktop apps, make adoption frustrating. It needs better accessibility and cross-platform support to truly replace email-SMS gateways.
- Can you elaborate on the limitations? In Belgium it seems more like a shitty deployment, but I don’t see what blocks a community FOSS option. Is it just that no one has been inspired to make an open source tool, or are the carrier’s APIs proprietary, secret, or restricted?