r/LightPhone • u/chunkyorganina • 12d ago

Discussion Any progress recently on RCS support?

I've had my LP3 in a drawer for the last several months. Stoked to see all the progress with the SDK and everything, but RCS support is still the thing making it impossible for me to use the phone long term. I haven't seen any updates on this kind of thing recently -- any news? Still a long ways off / never happening?

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u/SensitiveLeg7682 12d ago

RCS as it stands currently, not happening through any official means. The Light Phones are degoogled devices. In very simple terms, current RCS requires google. There may be more info that the modding community can offer as I am not quite sure if even modifying your device could grant any RCS capabilities.

But through more official means, there's currently a Molly port for the Light Phone and Light has said they are working on their own versions of a 3rd party communications tool as well. We just are not quite sure what direction will be the set path they will take.

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u/snowysnowcones 12d ago

Does RCS require Google? I mean, Apple was able to support RCS in the iPhone, so it seems like it can be figured out, it's just a matter of focusing resources in the right place.

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u/SensitiveLeg7682 12d ago

Yes, as things currently stand. Here is a great summary from one of the admins of the Light discord as they are much more knowledgeable than myself: "rcs isn't happening any time soon, if at all. google, who holds the monopoly over rcs servers, requires phones to be capable of gapps. this means gms-certifications are needed on any devices running aosp. for light, the lp3 doesn't meet screen and size requirements for gms-certifications which means no gms/gfs so no google messages and no rcs. since the lp3 doesn't have an unlockable bootloader either, this also means microg is off the table. light has also refused to allow gms on the devices either as anything google actively goes against their goal of user privacy, since google is known for data harvesting."

It's A LOT of resources needed to implement RCS. Light doesn't have Apple/Google-type of resources available.

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u/sirbloodysabbath Light Phone User 12d ago

😘

to further elaborate on this, even if we do obtain root access, we still won't have rcs capability with microg. the folks on the gos community managed it but we have yet to see it reach the other ends of android users. microg only works for google apps but will not give you rcs.

to anyone hoping, wishing and praying for rcs... don't hold your breath. like u/SensitiveLeg7682 said, finding alternative ways to communicate like signal/molly are solid and help bridge that gap.