RCS

Apple unexpectedly announced a few months ago that iOS would support the Rich Communications Services (RCS) Universal Profile in 2024. While this will improve the Android-iOS messaging experience, the driving force behind RCS on the iPhone might be new rules that regulators in China are implementing.

Following AT&T and T-Mobile in 2023, Verizon is switching to Google’s Jibe platform for RCS on its Android phones.

Since launch, Google Messages has not allowed RCS on more than one phone number, but the app is now adding support for dual (multi) SIM.

Just got a new Android smartphone for the holidays? If it’s your first one, it could be a little intimidating, so to get you started, here are a few apps you should immediately install or set up on a new Android device. Alternatively, if you’re not already using these apps, it might be time to give them a shot!

The new Beeper Mini app brings native iMessage support to Android devices but without any support for SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and the many other chat apps supported by the original Beeper app. Here’s the plan going forward.

There are now over 1 billion monthly active users with RCS enabled in Messages, and Google is celebrating by adding a ton of whimsy to the app across emoji (with Photomoji), voice recording, and customization.

Following the news that Apple is adding RCS support to the iPhone, Google is out with a statement this afternoon. 

Apple announced (via 9to5Mac) today that it’s adding RCS support to the iPhone in a great boost to Android-iOS messaging.

RCS has grown massively thanks to Google’s heavy push of the standard in recent years, and Google is also the one running RCS for a lot of carriers around the globe. Announced this week, UK carrier O2 is handing over the reins on RCS to Google ahead of some potential upgrades from Google.

Before Google started “Get The Message,” its campaign to pressure Apple on RCS for the iPhone played out in press interviews, tweets, and even on-stage at I/O:

In addition to Get the Messages continuing with iPager, T-Mobile announced today that its RCS offering is now powered by Google’s Jibe platform. 

Google started “Get the Message” last year to pressure Apple into supporting RCS on the iPhone, and the campaign continues today with “iPager.”

RCS is available to every Android user at this point, but that hasn’t ended the messaging headaches that come from iMessage and the lack of RCS on iPhone. But now, the third-party app Beeper can support both Google Messages RCS and Apple iMessage on both Android and iPhone, all within the same app.

After testing group end-to-end encryption for the past few months, Google Messages has now fully rolled it out and is enabling RCS by default.

Google is continuing its move to more explicitly label “RCS” in Messages with a very prominent badge noting which conversations are eligible.

While AT&T announced that it would use Google’s Messages app for RCS in June of 2021, the carrier maintained its own backend. That’s now changing with AT&T switching over to Google’s Jibe platform for RCS.

Google I/O 2023 was a place for the company to show off its real strength in AI, and it also brought several updates and announcements on existing Google products. Here are some notable numbers and metrics from Google I/O 2023.

RCS has grown significantly over the past few years, but one gaping hole in the product was support for end-to-end encryption. Now, after a few months of testing, Google appears to be rolling out, or at least testing, end-to-end encryption for RCS group chats in stable Google Messages updates.

Vodafone is pulling the plug on its own RCS implementation in the coming days, with an alert to customers going out now.