Google today announced the US rollout of Google-operated RCS for its Messages app for Android, making RCS “broadly” available to Android users in the US by the end of the year.
RCS is the new industry standard for messaging designed to replace SMS and MMS. It brings advanced features similar to iMessage, including the ability to send and receive high-resolution photos and videos, and see if people have received your messages. Although the Messages app has supported RCS for some time, it has relied on carrier support on a phone-by-phone basis, which has been slow to roll out.
Google’s new service announced today side-steps carrier infrastructure and gives Android users RCS without waiting for carrier support. Google launched a similar service in the UK, France, and Mexico earlier this year.
he US carriers have formed a joint venture called the CCMI (Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative), which promises to ship a new texting app and offer RCS services in 2020. Google promises it will interoperate with the CCMI’s system, and it has previously said that it can transition users from one RCS server to another.
iPhones do not support RCS and Apple has not made statements either way about support of the standard.
