It also automatically turns it on for every device you own. You have to manually deactivate it. It’s really shady stuff.

Someone please enlighten me. I cannot figure out why does RCS even exist? It does not solve any problems… unless the problem was that Gurgle didn’t have everyone’s phone number yet.

Seriously, If I understand it correctly, RCS requires data (either mobile or wifi), so it cannot be used instead of SMS. But if you already have data, then you can use the communication app you use normally (Matrix, Signal, WhataCrapApp, …). There is no point in using RCS at all.

EDIT: I should have posted this as a reply to one of the comments here… too late.

This makes me deeply deeply uncomfortable.

I look forward to the class action when a telecom provider cancels service or denies fraud claims after this exploit feature is used.

Got the email today

“Be evil”

For both iMessage and RCS, your phone number essentially acts like a username. Both services communicate with the carrier to “claim” it, otherwise everything would arrive as an SMS.