zlacker

>>quenti+(OP)
Can someone ELI5 the RCS thing for me? I don't get it...

From the answer and the wikipedia page it sounds like this might be a decision that the other side's client (SIM? carrier?) makes, to reply via RCS.

And my device would be able to receive this only via data connection? Or would my carrier detect that I'm not currently in 4G covered area (middle of Germany for example...) and send the text via regular SMS?

I'm a bit worried by the first point, really. What does that mean for e.g. pinephones or google free android? Do I risk silently missing text messsages?

>>black_+gg
I think it'll get clearer when you realise that SMS (and MMS) is also nothing more than a "data connection" message that carriers chose to classify as zero-cost and available during roaming via different pricing.

RCS - and VoLTE for example - is in this way no different. It's just a data message that gets sent to a configured endpoint (either on Google or your carriers' servers, depending on your carrier preference).

Of course, the carriers still remain the dumbass link in this chain as usual. I've just had to deal with a carrier that charges VoLTE call configuration setup connection as normal foreign data roaming with minimum pricing. The phone ate through 30EUR of costs despite having mobile data disabled.