And the included encryption is beyond useless if it is instantly dropped when sent to a device that doesn’t understand the new protocol. That’s such a huge security vulnerability that it is just security theater to encrypt in the first place. Though I’m sure it has to do something with all those messages going through google’s servers.
Actually it’s not true for iMessage. Messages switches to SMS/MMS if the phone doesn’t support iMessage or has it disabled, but if it’s an iMessage it’s an iMessage—encryption and all—and you can see in advance if that is the case.
That said I don’t know what Google’s messenger actually does when it drops the encryption on RCS messages. Is there a visual distinction between encrypted RCS and unencrypted RCS on the sender end if it is just dropping the encryption on the receiving end as a fallback?
