RCS, or Rich Communication Services, was supposed to unite the androids. But with the news that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have abandoned the effort toward a unified messaging platform, it seems like a more turbulent time for green bubbles.
According to the telecommunications media Light reading, the three major operators have left the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) to standardize RCS in 2020. Led by Sprint in 2019, CCMI was a consortium with plans to develop an RCS-based messaging application for users of Android. so they had a platform similar to Apple’s iMessage. RCS allows for improved messaging and is already standard in overseas markets. It allows features like read receipts, higher quality media, and better group conversations, which iMessage users have enjoyed for years. The idea was for the CCMI to develop another Android users could download the app to have all these features with each other.
But the CCMI was dead in the water at the time it was announced. Google has been talking about Android for a long time support for RCS, but the company was not even mentioned in the original CCMI press release. Then Sprint, the CCMI’s torchbearer, folded under T-Mobile’s wing. And more RCS-enabled messaging apps hit the Play Store, including Google Messages, adding to the fragmentation that already existed on the platform.
For their part, the three major U.S. airlines have been relatively quiet about it, with Verizon telling Light Reading that the CCMI owners were to blame.
So far, the only carrier that is totally committed at RCS is T-Mobile, with plans to turn Messages into the default of all smartphones purchased from the mobile carrier. This does not solve the problem of interoperability between Android users, though. Verizon and AT&T continue to sell their own messaging apps on devices sold through their networks. And while both operators have offered their commitments to RCS, it is still limited to chats on their respective networks.
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RCS is a standard that was introduced in 2008 as a next-generation version of SMS, which we still use to send text messages. However, SMS is a fairly old technology and applications like WhatsApp have become popular due to its advanced capabilities. Google has been the biggest animator of RCS, even buying the middleware company Jibe and bundling it into Messages to help speed up compatibility.
The only way for true RCS support to reach all Android users is if mobile operators use the app that already supports it and sends the rest to the Trash. But that won’t happen because operators haven’t figured out how to make money out of it. And still not solve the problem of chatting with iOS devices: Apple does not support the standard, probably keep iMessage exclusive to Apple devices.
Android users have long complained about the economy of muted messaging on the platform. Perhaps the best way to deal with this as an Android user is to set the Messages app as the default as a protest against all these complicated efforts. Anyway, it seems that’s why Google is betting.