RCS/SMS text message support for infotainment?

[buffaloNYR1T]

New R1T owner here from WNY! Loving my truck so far, but I do have one major gripe- the lack of any kind of native Rivian infotainment support for sending/receiving SMS/RCS messages!?

Not wading into the whole lack of Carplay/android Auto integration, which has its own set of challenges- cars have had some ability to read, send, and receive text messages and even autorespond for a decade. I had this in my 2013 BMW 328XI via a wired connection, so I find this not being supported at even a basic level to be totally unacceptable. Why? This isn't a higher priority to achieve infotainment parity, especially since the API's and tools to enable SMS/RCS via Bluetooth support have existed for well over a decade is completely beyond me. Long term they need to think long and hard about how to get more 3rd party app development for the Rivian platform

Has anyone heard or seen any commentary from Rivian about when this might be supported?

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[moosetags]

These issues have been complained about as long as we have been around here. Rivian does not seem to want to include any software that is not theirs. That's a double edged sword that both helps and hurts them.

Brian

 

[Ralph]

Rivian's SVP of Software Engineering, Wassym Bensaid answered the question, "When will we see text messaging, etc.?" back in April at about 5:38 in this video.

He said clearly that they are working on it, and although he did not want to over commit, he expected it would be "in the next few quarters".

They have been making progress with other items mentioned in that same Q&A (drive cam, bed cam) so there is reason to believe texting, entertainment, etc. is coming even if there may have been delays.

 

[buffaloNYR1T]

Rivian's SVP of Software Engineering, Wassym Bensaid answered the question, "When will we see text messaging, etc.?" back in April at about 5:38 in this video.

He said clearly that they are working on it, and although he did not want to over commit, he expected it would be "in the next few quarters".

They have been making progress with other items mentioned in that same Q&A (drive cam, bed cam) so there is reason to believe texting, entertainment, etc. is coming even if there may have been delays.

Thanks for posting this, I hadn’t seen that. Good to hear it’s in the radar, disappointing it’s not done yet. Seems like a critical issue, at least IMO. My suspicion is the lack of iMessage integration with 3rd party apps- and the desire to provide a unified UX for all users. Apple sadly has iMessage locked down to 3rd party devs. In Android this is super easy. Hopefully with Apple finally supporting RCS in iMessage this gets cleaned up ASAP.

 

[Ralph]

Thanks for posting this, I hadn’t seen that. Good to hear it’s in the radar, disappointing it’s not done yet. Seems like a critical issue, at least IMO. My suspicion is the lack of iMessage integration with 3rd party apps- and the desire to provide a unified UX for all users. Apple sadly has iMessage locked down to 3rd party devs. In Android this is super easy. Hopefully with Apple finally supporting RCS in iMessage this gets cleaned up ASAP.

It's not impossible that Apple's announcement in Nov that they were going to support RCS has extended Rivian's timeline.

The adoption of this standard will make continued integration across OS environments less problematic for all. Another positive development driven by the EU.

 

[HaveBlue]

It should be possible now. A friend's 2015 Avalon hybrid can send and receive messages over BT with iPhones. Apparently iPhone allows that.
https://toyota-en-us.visteoninfotainment.com/communication-text-messaging

 

[hekhl00]

Because RJ has a deep seated desire to recreate the wheel and then find a way to charge us for it. It’s absolutely absurd that we don’t have this functionality right out of the box. But the fanboys will excuse it by saying “give them time, it’s a new company, they’re doing great things,” etc. It’s total BS. It’s also one of the reasons that the thread on EVSportline’s aftermarket CP solution has 30,000 views.

 

[COdogman]

Because RJ has a deep seated desire to recreate the wheel and then find a way to charge us for it. It’s absolutely absurd that we don’t have this functionality right out of the box. But the fanboys will excuse it by saying “give them time, it’s a new company, they’re doing great things,” etc. It’s total BS.

 

[240vPlug]

they don't want to give up the UX control which is why Rivian, Tesla, and now GM have decided to drop support for car play and android auto. Text messaging should be possible using the Alexa integration though Rivian has not enabled this functionality as yet. Would like to see something similar to what Tesla did...that is totally acceptable for me.

As far as AA and CP I think having the ability to project it onto a portion of the screen would be ok. Give a warning to enable it saying Rivian has no control over it etc. Its one thing that I really don't like about Rivian or Tesla. How can a chevy bolt have something a Rivian and Tesla do not?

 

[Ralph]

It should be possible now. A friend's 2015 Avalon hybrid can send and receive messages over BT with iPhones. Apparently iPhone allows that.
https://toyota-en-us.visteoninfotainment.com/communication-text-messaging

You are correct, the SMS/text messaging protocol could have been implemented at almost any point earlier.

But for whatever reason Rivian did not do so. And now the landscape has changed. In mid-November Apple (finally?) agreed to support the RCS protocol instead of SMS/MMS to communicate to the non-Apple world.

So Rivian now has the opportunity to implement a much more feature rich messaging system that supports rich communication to users of both operating systems.

As I understand it, Apple will continue to use iMessage and all that implies within it's ecosystem. But "at some point next year" will replace support for SMS/MMS text messaging with the RCS text messaging protocol/standard.

It's hard to imagine Rivian going ahead with an RCS implementation prior to Apple supporting it. Rivian's Apple eco system customers, who really want something else anyway, would not be pleased.

With all that in mind, Rivian text messaging may be delayed by Apple's announcement.

 

[RivianPioneer]

Because RJ has a deep seated desire to recreate the wheel and then find a way to charge us for it. It’s absolutely absurd that we don’t have this functionality right out of the box. But the fanboys will excuse it by saying “give them time, it’s a new company, they’re doing great things,” etc. It’s total BS. It’s also one of the reasons that the thread on EVSportline’s aftermarket CP solution has 30,000 views.

I purchased EVSportsline’s aftermarket solution. It was easy to install and it works. Sure I wish I didn’t have to install anything to get this functionality, but the reality is that Apple has a very closed off system, as does Rivian, as does Tesla. These companies all work hard to keep the others out of their core programming.

 

[HaveBlue]

You are correct, the SMS/text messaging protocol could have been implemented at almost any point earlier.

But for whatever reason Rivian did not do so. And now the landscape has changed. In mid-November Apple (finally?) agreed to support the RCS protocol instead of SMS/MMS to communicate to the non-Apple world.

So Rivian now has the opportunity to implement a much more feature rich messaging system that supports rich communication to users of both operating systems.

As I understand it, Apple will continue to use iMessage and all that implies within it's ecosystem. But "at some point next year" will replace support for SMS/MMS text messaging with the RCS text messaging protocol/standard.

It's hard to imagine Rivian going ahead with an RCS implementation prior to Apple supporting it. Rivian's Apple eco system customers, who really want something else anyway, would not be pleased.

With all that in mind, Rivian text messaging may be delayed by Apple's announcement.

I don't think it works that way. The car doesn't care if it is sms, MMS, RCS or imessage. The phone just transmits the text over BT and receives a response from the car which it sends back out over whatever protocol the phones are speaking. A Toyota can't directly speak imessage. If it could, then there would already be tons of imessage clients besides poor beeper.

https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/message-access-profile-1-4-2/

 

[ssbmx90]

Rivian's SVP of Software Engineering, Wassym Bensaid answered the question, "When will we see text messaging, etc.?" back in April at about 5:38 in this video.

He said clearly that they are working on it, and although he did not want to over commit, he expected it would be "in the next few quarters".

They have been making progress with other items mentioned in that same Q&A (drive cam, bed cam) so there is reason to believe texting, entertainment, etc. is coming even if there may have been delays.

both features have been added so…

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