This RCS and Gemini hack saved me from paying for overpriced in-flight Wi-Fi

On a recent flight from Paris to Budapest, I logged into Air France’s in-flight Wi-Fi and was faced with the same overpriced plans I’ve seen for years now. Dozens of euros to be connected during a long-haul flight might be justifiable if you need to get work done, but for a bit of light browsing and messaging on a short two-hour flight, some of the airline pricing doesn’t make any sense.

I often pick the good compromise of the free “messaging” plan, which lets me chat on apps like WhatsApp and Google Messages (via RCS, not SMS) without paying a cent. But this time, I needed to do some quick last-minute research, so I wanted some form of connectivity. Then it occurred to me: There’s Gemini in Google Messages, and it works over RCS! Could it bypass the in-flight Wi-Fi and let me search the web and ask time-sensitive questions? Only one way to find out.

I connected to Air France’s free messaging service, which clearly lists the limitations of this plan: no photos (more on this later), videos, or audio files, no emails, no internet browsing or social media, no streaming, and no calls. Text messages via messaging apps are the only perk.

Could I get more details than just a title? I asked it to tell me more about the Wear OS change that’s hinting at Gemini support, and the list of phones getting One UI 7 in the US. It answered all of those questions, though it listed both the phones that’d already gotten One UI 7 a week earlier as well as the ones that were getting it then.

I was thrilled. This felt like having access to the entire internet without the need to open a browser, and like sticking up a giant middle finger to overpriced in-flight Wi-Fi. Just ask Gemini instead of opening a webpage.

I kept at it, asking random questions about the duration of my flight, the current time in Budapest, where to buy the 15-day public transport ticket, whether you say “isle” or “aisle” of a plane, and how to get from the airport in Budapest to my hotel near the Astoria area. Gemini gave me a Google Maps link for the last one, thinking I wanted directions with live bus times, but since I couldn’t browse to that link, I phrased my request differently and forced it to give me more general info about the bus line and ticket price.

That’s where I felt more at ease and started planning a few details of my trip. I knew that the weather predicted a storm for the next few days in Budapest, but I wanted to visit Buda Castle and the Fisherman’s Bastion in decent weather. So I asked about the ideal time to go, given the weather, and adjusted that with my existing plans.

When I got bored of trip planning, I pivoted to football, asked about ongoing La Liga games and their scores (it got the score right, but not the player or time), Real Madrid’s and FC Barcelona’s next games, their likely line-ups, and news and rumors about Madrid injuries and transfers.

It was so fun to query the internet at large in a simple messaging app — no webpages to load, no links to click, just back-and-forth questions and answers with Gemini over RCS in Google Messages. It felt like I’d hacked the system and broken the rules, but I was playing by them, fair and square. I was just texting, and if the recipient of my texts happens to be an all-knowing AI, then Air France has no control over that, right?

The limits of Gemini in Google Messages as a web-browsing hack

The first answer I received from Gemini left me wondering how to read that humongous uniform block of text. Turns out Gemini does format its answers properly, but takes a bit of time to do so. On the slow airplane connection, I had to swipe out of my chat and then go back in to see the same answer with proper formatting of bold, underline, bullets, and — praise the heavens — line breaks!

Still, any links could not be tapped or even previewed. Loading previews requires a proper internet connection, and that seemed to be outside of Air France’s free Wi-Fi allocation.

I quickly discovered that images were working on this free plan, though, even if Air France’s warning clearly states they’re not. They just took a long time to send and receive in my chats with friends. So I decided to share images with Gemini too, and ask questions about them. I sent a cat photo and asked it about the breed, then I gave it a screenshot of a Pebblebee Bluetooth tracker in Google Find Device and asked it for help with the exact location, including country and city. It answered these.

Perhaps the biggest test, though, was to see if Gemini could send me photos. I tried everything I could think of, but it wouldn’t do it. Again, this is a limitation of Gemini in Google Messages, whether you’re on a high-speed unlimited connection or a slow, restricted in-flight plan. Google’s AI only sends links to photos, which load small previews if you’re on a good connection, but don’t do that on the messaging-only in-flight Wi-Fi. It doesn’t attach images to you, like normal humans would. I was hoping this would help me browse the internet more completely by asking for photos or even screenshots of websites, but alas, it didn’t work.

For what it’s worth, I tried both ChatGPT and Meta AI in WhatsApp, and they all had a very similar limitation with photos, so this isn’t a Gemini issue per se. It seems like all AI chatbots can’t really attach images or videos and send them to you. They only send links and rely on previews to help you see things.

On my way back from Budapest to Paris, I did similar tests with ChatGPT and Meta AI in WhatsApp. That’s how I could keep an eye on the Europa League and Conference semi-final scores from the plane (Meta AI got it right, ChatGPT was useless for this), check the weather in Paris at landing time, and start making weekend plans.

Once again, it was all quite a fun and streamlined experiment, like talking to the world’s know-it-all nerd over text messages. Obviously, there were factual errors and some minor hallucinations — that’s an issue with all AI bots, still — so I wouldn’t trust any of these answers with my life. But for short-term planning, some light browsing and research, and local queries, you can’t beat the free price or immense convenience.

I plan on sticking with the free messaging-only Wi-Fi plan for my next trips, and I suggest you do too, especially if they’re shorter flights. On long hauls, which I almost never take, a proper connection would still be required for any decent work or research. That is, until Air France rolls out its promised free Wi-Fi for all upgrade this summer, and I hope other airlines follow suit, too, so we don’t need hacky ways to stay connected in the air.