Google has been working on making text messaging better for a long time. It is one of the dream projects of Google. Google has named it RCS (Rich Communication Services). Rich Communication Service is basically the upgrade of normal text messaging. In 2018, Google announced it had been working with every major cell phone carrier in the world to adopt the RCS protocol. And today they are launching RCS in the USA and France.
With the help of RCS, users can send text messages over Wifi network or mobile data. This will make it easier for them to send photos and videos as well. Google’s RCS is much like Apple’s iMessage. iMessage can send photos and videos, it has read receipts and many more features. The features of RCS includes:
- Chat over Wi-Fi
- Sending and receiving high-resolution photos and videos
- Read receipts
- Typing indicators
- Group chat naming
- Adding and removing people from group chats
RCS will work on Android devices, which means people can send messages in RCS only if both sender and receiver have Google’s message app. Google is rolling out RCS through the Google Messages app, Google’s ninth messaging app after Google Talk, Google Voice, Google Buzz, Google+ Messenger, Hangouts, Spaces, Allo, and Hangouts Chat. Users of Google’s app will eventually see a notification to “Do more with Messages,” and then they’ll be able to “enable chat features” which is RCS.
If you want to enable RCS in your smartphone, Android Police has given the whole process in their blog.