Apple RCS, Pixel 9 Pro AI & Missing Pixel Buds Review

TL;DR

Apple finally adopts RCS, improving Android-iOS messaging. The Pixel 9 Pro's AI photo editing is mind-blowing, but its other AI tools are hit-or-miss. And don't count on "Find My Device" to find your lost Pixel Buds. #TechReview #Pixel9Pro #RCS

INTRODUCTION

For years, the color of your text bubbles has been a strange, yet undeniable, social signifier in the United States. ¹ The dreaded "green bubble" from an Android user in an iMessage group chat meant blurry videos, missing reactions, and a degraded experience for everyone involved. This digital divide, carefully maintained by Apple, created a subtle but effective social pressure, particularly among younger users, to conform to the Apple ecosystem. ²

In this episode of VentureStep, host Dalton Anderson dives into the long-awaited tech shift that’s ending this era: Apple's reluctant adoption of Rich Communication Services (RCS). ³ Dalton breaks down what RCS is, why it’s a massive upgrade from the ancient SMS protocol, and what this change actually means for everyday communication between iPhone and Android users. He also shares his hands-on experience with Google's latest flagship, the Pixel 9 Pro, focusing on its powerful new AI features.

From a deep dive into the practical benefits of RCS to a critical review of the Pixel 9 Pro’s hit-or-miss AI tools and a cautionary tale about his mysteriously vanished Pixel Buds, this episode is a comprehensive look at the latest updates from the tech giants. Dalton explores not just the technology itself, but the corporate strategies and user experiences that shape our digital lives. 444

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Apple's adoption of RCS finally modernizes messaging between iPhones and Androids, enabling high-quality media, typing indicators, and better encryption. ^555555555
• The Pixel 9 Pro's AI-powered "Imagine" feature in Google Photos is incredibly powerful and realistic, capable of generating photorealistic images from simple prompts. ⁶⁶⁶⁶⁶
• While some of the Pixel's AI tools are impressive, others like the Screenshots app currently offer little practical utility. ⁷
• Google's "Find My Device" feature for the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is fundamentally flawed, as it can only help locate the buds when they are already out of the case and connected to your device. ⁸⁸
• Apple has historically used software limitations, such as enabling only SMS for Android texts and allegedly paying social media apps to lower Android upload quality, to create social pressure to buy iPhones. ^9999999

FULL CONVERSATION

Dalton Anderson: Welcome to VentureStep podcast where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends, and the occasional book review. ¹⁰

The Social Pressure of the Green Bubble

Dalton Anderson: When I was in middle school, I was under lots of pressure from my peers and girls for my lack of iMessage capabilities when I was using an Android. ¹¹It would be a frequent topic of discussion, especially with the girls I was trying to speak with. ¹²Sometimes it was a big deal because I was the odd man out and I was a little different. ¹³

I think it's so funny that my children and my children's children will no longer have to be under these kind of societal pressures. ¹⁴

Dalton Anderson: I'm so thankful for that. If you can't see me on video, I'm being sarcastic. It's not that big of a deal, but there is some type of pressure on kids to fit in obviously. 15And it takes a specialist type of someone to not fit in, right? 16When I was in middle school, I would wear a bright pink backpack just to stand out and to do my own thing and to go against the grain. 17But I just did it anyways, because I wanted to be a little different. 18 And being different comes with being called out. And so does the type of messaging app that you're capable of using natively for some reason in America. 19

Dalton Anderson: If you're European or in Asia and you're listening to this podcast episode and you're like, what's going on? This is so confusing. 20 It's because in America or the United States, people just use the native messaging app. They don't use WhatsApp. 21 They don't use Telegram. They don't use any of these other third party apps. 22They just use what's on the app. 23Why that is, I don't know. 24I think the other apps are superior, but that's really besides the point. 25

What Is RCS and Why Does It Matter?

Dalton Anderson: So now under years of pressure from Google and recently over the last couple of years, governmental pressure for regulations and some studies that came out that say the pressure of iMessage forces children to use Apple because they don't want to be made fun of and they want to fit in, Apple has reluctantly enabled RCS on the phones, but I don't think they made it so it's the same color. ²⁶If it's iPhone to iPhone, it'll be the same color, but if it's not, then you'll get the green text. ²⁷ So what is RCS? RCS is Rich Communication Services and it's a texting protocol that is the modern version of SMS. ²⁸

Dalton Anderson: SMS was created way back when and now we're sending a lot more data, right? ²⁹We're sending large videos, high fidelity photos. ³⁰ Back when SMS was created, we were really sending low pixelated photos, texts. We weren't sending all these emojis and GIFs and long high quality videos; those items weren't really on the list for SMS. ³¹And so RCS includes all these modern communication capabilities that phones are capable of right now and what the future looks like as well. ³²

RCS is just a better way to communicate because it reflects what people do now, not what we previously did. ³³

Dalton Anderson: It was just a modern texting protocol. Google owns it with a couple other phone companies. 34They have a board of people like Google and a couple others and they all banded together and said, "Hey, we're going to make RCS and we're going to use it on our phones." 35And Apple was like, "This sounds great, man, but nah." 36They're like, "We're good with iMessage" and everyone else is like, why? 37iMessage and this doesn't have anything to do with you only enabling SMS when it's a third party. 38When I say third party, if Android was texting Apple, Apple considers Android a third party, so it's SMS. 39 And SMS, as said, doesn't reflect our normal communication in this modern era. So it causes issues with people. 40

How to Enable RCS on Your iPhone

Dalton Anderson: I recently had a conversation with a family member and they're like, "Man, your phone sucks." ⁴¹ And I was like, "Why do you say that?" And they're like, "Well, the video looks like it's from the 2000s or something. It's so blurry." ⁴²

The video looks like from the 2000s or something. It's so blurry. And I was like, yeah, that's Apple's fault. ⁴³

Dalton Anderson: That has nothing to do with the phone that I carry or my camera's quality, and I'm pretty sure the camera's quality is very high. ⁴⁴And they're like, "What do you mean it's Apple's fault?" ⁴⁵And I was like, "Okay, well, this whole SMS and RCS thing," they had no idea. ⁴⁶And I was like, "Okay, update your phone, go to iOS 18, go to your settings, enable RCS and come back to me." ⁴⁷And they did the next day and they're like, "Wow, this is crazy. It looks so good." ⁴⁸I was like, "That's RCS." ⁴⁹

Apple's History of Walled Gardens

Dalton Anderson: For the longest, Apple was paying Snapchat and Instagram—when I say Instagram, before Facebook acquired Instagram—they were paying them to not optimize the upload quality and intentionally paying them also to reduce the quality of the uploads so Apple just looked better. ⁵⁰There's this additional societal lever on people. ⁵¹Like you have Android, you're uploading your photos on Android, they look so bad. ⁵²How are you going to present yourself as cool or slick or attractive when you have all these blurry photos? ⁵³

It's such an odd thing. Why? I mean, it's clear why. They want a societal pressure for people to go to Apple. ⁵⁴

Dalton Anderson: And I'm pretty sure it worked well. Majority of kids use iPhones. 55 Majority of households use iPhone in America. When I was in Japan, pretty much everyone uses iPhones. 56 Korea, same thing, really. And if you weren't using an iPhone in Korea, you were using a Samsung. 57I saw some Googles, but not that many. 58

Dalton Anderson: Let's go over what you can get from enabling RCS. You'll be able to get full quality videos, you'll be able to get high quality images. 59You will also get typing indications, which I think is really cool. 60So now when I'm typing with a friend on iMessage and we're texting back and forth, they can see when I'm typing. 61I could see when they're typing and I'm pretty sure that also you'll have read receipts if the person has read receipts on. 62So I would have to have it on my phone and they would have to have it on their phone, and then if we both have them on, then it will show you reads. 63It also has modern encryption, so your texts are a little bit more protected than SMS. 64It's overall a great thing for all the users. 65

First Impressions: Google Pixel 9 Pro

Dalton Anderson: So moving on to the next part is my experience with the Pixel 9 Pro. ⁶⁶And remember, I don't have the XL, I just have the 9 Pro. ⁶⁷ I'll show you what it looks like in the case. I have the perfect design case. It's beautiful. ⁶⁸ This is such a slick case. I'm not really a tech reviewer. I kind of talk about tech, but I got this phone to talk about on the podcast because it has all this AI stuff on it. ⁶⁹

Dalton Anderson: Overall, a very, very polished experience with the software. ⁷⁰ I've had the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 7 Pro. Hold on, I'm going to take it out of the case so I can show you what it looks like. ⁷¹Overall, such a beautiful phone. ⁷² It looks so nice with the green and the gold. It's very polished, right? ⁷³It looks like a flagship, feels flagship-y. ⁷⁴ I think that's the biggest difference between the 4a. The 4a just felt cheaper obviously than the other phones. ⁷⁵ But that was my test. Am I interested in using Pixel phones long-term? ⁷⁶ Let me try 4a. Let me see what Pixel's all about and then upgrade from there. ⁷⁷

Why a Smaller "Pro" Phone Is a Game Changer

Dalton Anderson: The only thing I don't like about the 7 Pro was it was so big. ⁷⁸ I don't really like those big phones. It's just too much. ⁷⁹ It's a hassle to get in and out of your pocket. Why do I need a phone that big? ⁸⁰At a certain point, those large phones are just tablets. ⁸¹ Why are you mixing up these form factors? The form factor is a certain way because it has a certain function. ⁸² That's how I feel about large phones. At a certain point, just stop please. ⁸³So I'm so happy that they provided a regular sized phone with the enhanced features. ⁸⁴

A Hands-On Look at the Pixel 9 Pro's AI Features

Dalton Anderson: The main reason I got this phone was this AI stuff. ⁸⁵There is the screenshots app, there is a proofreading thing in your messages, there's Imagen which is in Google Photos, and then there's Pixel Studio. ⁸⁶The biggest one they're coming out with is going to be the analyst researcher. ⁸⁷Later next year they're going to come out with an analyst like researcher thing where you can give it complex tasks that might take you 30 hours to complete. ⁸⁸It might take the AI five hours of compute time to do what you need to do. ⁸⁹ That's gonna be super cool. That was probably one of the main reasons I got the phone. ⁹⁰

Dalton Anderson: If we move over to the screenshots app, I don't really think it's that useful. ⁹¹It's supposed to auto process my screenshots, but doesn't process them automatically for some reason. ⁹²As far as the usefulness of the AI and the utility I get from it, I get zero. ⁹³One thing I do like about the screenshots app is that I don't have screenshots in my camera roll anymore. ⁹⁴

The Power and Danger of AI Photo Generation

Dalton Anderson: Having this AI chip integrated allows you to do Imagen with photos and I would say it's insane. ⁹⁵So that's what my backdrop looks like. ⁹⁶And then on my phone, I asked it to reimagine the back of my room and add some decorations. ^97979797 And it did. And I can't tell it's not a photo. I can't tell that's not real. ⁹⁸ And then it also did something else. I have a plate of food from this local restaurant called Caroline's, a Cuban cafe. ⁹⁹ And I asked it to reimagine the food as a plate of rocks. And it does it. It's so good. It's crazy good. It's literally identical. ¹⁰⁰

You can't tell. You can't tell that's the AI studio... it's very realistic. ¹⁰¹

Dalton Anderson: Then you go to Pixel Studio, and I think Pixel Studio is gonna become similar to the screenshots app, like a Pinterest vibe. ¹⁰²On Pixel Studio and the screenshots app, you can put your screenshots in certain collections. ¹⁰³ In pixel studio, you can make outfits. This one's saying "lay flat inspiration for dark academia." ¹⁰⁴It's very Instagram-y. ¹⁰⁵I'm using it for good, but you could definitely do some weird stuff. ¹⁰⁶

Testing the On-Device Gemini Assistant

Dalton Anderson: One thing I do like is the on-device Gemini. ¹⁰⁷On-device Gemini is very good because when you're using the live conversation feature, it's processing it locally on your phone. ¹⁰⁸So it's a lot faster and seems more natural. ¹⁰⁹

Dalton Anderson: Hey, so I'm here talking about the Pixel 9 Pro. ¹¹⁰And I was wondering if you wanted to talk about some of the capabilities that you have that are now enabled because there's an AI chip in the phone. ¹¹¹

Gemini: Absolutely, the Pixel 9 Pro has some seriously cool AI features. ¹¹² Let's start with the camera. It has this awesome feature called Magic Eraser, which can totally remove unwanted objects from your photos. ¹¹³ I'm talking people, power lines, even that random tourist in the background of your vacation pic. It's like having a magic wand for your photos. ¹¹⁴

Dalton Anderson: I have to move on, this is taking too long. So that was a complete failure, but it is better. 115It's faster. 116

The Case of the Missing Pixel Buds

Dalton Anderson: Okay, so I was also supposed to talk about the Google Pixel Buds. ¹¹⁷I only use them, I think three times, so I don't really want to talk about them. ¹¹⁸But I will talk about how I am devastated that they went missing. ¹¹⁹ I have no idea where they went. And I will say that it's not very clear on their tracking. ¹²⁰When you first sign in and register your Pixel Buds, these are Pixel Bud Pro 2s, it has you add the buds to Find My Device, or something like that, Google's Find My Device. ¹²¹And it shows you your individual buds, so it makes it seem like you could locate the individual buds if they got lost, or at least record the last location is what I was thinking. ¹²²

A Major Flaw in Google's "Find My Device"

Dalton Anderson: It doesn't do that for you, unfortunately. ¹²³It updates the Pixel Bud's location when you open the case. ¹²⁴So it says, "updated location just now," and it's at your house. ¹²⁵And I'm looking around and it's not here. ¹²⁶It doesn't actually record the location of the Buds, the last location of connection, which I thought that's what it was doing. ¹²⁷What it's actually doing is it just updates the location the last time you opened your case, which isn't very useful when you're trying to find your buds because you can never find them. ¹²⁸After reading through some of the information, it only allows you to help you find your buds if the buds are connected. ¹²⁹

Why have a feature that helps you find your buds if you can only find them when they're connected? ¹³⁰

Dalton Anderson: That's like, you're trying to find your keys, but you can only find your keys when they're in the car and the car is on. ¹³¹ Okay, what about when my car is off and I need to get to my car and turn it on and I don't have the keys? Well, you're out of luck. ¹³² So this is the same gist. At the moment, I can't find the Pixel Buds and I don't know if they were stolen or if I misplaced them. ¹³³

What's Coming Up on VentureStep?

Dalton Anderson: Next week, I want to talk about some of the AI news coming out. ¹³⁴This Claude API computer use, I really want to do a demo of that and scrape some stuff off the internet and try to fill out a form or do something like this. ¹³⁵Meta came out with an open source NotebookLM, which is a Google's product that they've had for a while. ¹³⁶

Meta is just open sourcing everything and they're just eating people up because their stuff is as good, but it's free and it's open source. ¹³⁷

Dalton Anderson: I love Meta with all their open source AI models and frameworks and the detail that they're putting into their research papers is something I haven't seen. ¹³⁸Google also came out with a new Imagen 3 that I want to talk about. ¹³⁹There's so many things that I have on the list. ¹⁴⁰Of course, I appreciate all the involvement in the comments that I've been getting. ¹⁴¹ I'll see you next week. And I hope that you'll listen in. Wherever you are in this world, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Have a great day. ¹⁴²

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Google
• Apple
• Android
• iMessage
• WhatsApp
• Telegram
• Snapchat
• Instagram
• Facebook (Meta)
• Samsung
• Pixel 9 Pro
• Pixel Buds Pro 2
• Caroline's Cuban Cafe
• Claude API by Anthropic
• Docker
• Python
• NotebookLM
• Imagen 3
• InsureTech Conference (ITC)

INDEX OF CONCEPTS

RCS (Rich Communication Services), SMS, iMessage, iOS 18, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 4a, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Buds Pro 2, Google, Apple, WhatsApp, Telegram, Android, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Meta, Samsung, Gemini, Google Photos, Imagen, Pixel Studio, Find My Device, Magic Eraser, on-device AI, Claude API, Docker, Python, NotebookLM, Imagen 3, InsureTech Conference (ITC), Caroline's Cuban Cafe