Speaker 1: As a decade long Android user, I have sat on the outskirts and watched all my friends with iPhones, use iMessage to send high resolution photos and videos and react to each other's messages. Meanwhile, I'd been stuck with the messaging platform that hadn't been updated in more than two decades, and that made photos and videos look like they'd been taken in 2008, but finally, a new texting protocol has arrived to bring Android phones into the 21st century. It's called RCS or rich communication services. [00:00:30] It's essentially the next generation of texting for Android. It replaces SMS or short message service, a text messaging standard that's been used since the nineties and was long overdue for an overhaul. RCS includes a lot of the same features as iMessage, like the ability to chat over wifi or mobile data, send in receive high resolution photos and videos. See red receipts and typing indicators and add and remove people [00:01:00] from group chats.
Speaker 2: It's been slowly developed to potentially replace how text messages are sent by default between a large variety of phones for now. Google has been the main champion of it raising support among us phone carriers and carriers around the world. But as a result it's for now, primarily within Android devices,
Speaker 1: RCS is available through Google's messages app, and it fully rolled out to users. In 2020. Google says today, the messages app has [00:01:30] half a billion, monthly active users with RCS, but even though RCS has been available for a couple years now, it hasn't reached the same level of ubiquity among Android users, as iMessage has with iPhone users. A big reason for this is that not all carriers and devices, support RCS. Yet Verizon started supporting it in 2022 while T-Mobile began supporting it in 2020, and then at and T in 2021. But there are other carriers around the world who are still rolling it
Speaker 2: Out. The [00:02:00] adoption level of it depends on what kind of Android phone you're using when and what operating system is on, whether you're using the messages app and whether you've opted into the, uh, RCS services on it, labeled chat within that app.
Speaker 1: Also, even if you have RCS enabled on your phone, the person you're texting will also need to have it enabled on theirs. If you wanna access all the features, I'll walk you through how to enable RCS later on in this video, as well as how to see if someone else has it on just [00:02:30] from personal experience. Most of my friends who are Android users still haven't enabled RCS. So I haven't been able to use these new features as much as I'd like people. I talk to say, they either don't know how to enable it or just haven't been compelled to do so. It's
Speaker 2: Interesting because with iPhones and iMessage, often when you boot up that iPhone, you're all automatically enrolled into iMessage and it's like, you did nothing cuz you didn't, you just turned it on in Google's case because of that extra step that might stop people from signing up for it, making adoption a little more [00:03:00] challenging.
Speaker 1: On the other hand for my friends who are iPhone users, their devices, aren't RCS compatible since iMessage doesn't support it more on that later. So our texts are sent via SMS. In fact, that disconnect between Android and apple has been a huge point of discussion or contention really for Google, as we know, iMessage only works on Apple's platforms. So if someone with an iPhone texts, someone on Android, that message will switch to SMS and the text bubble will turn green instead [00:03:30] of blue. And there's apparently nothing more abhorrent to some iPhone users than green texts
Speaker 2: And iMessage first debuted apple wanted to label which messages were being sent over its iMessage platform versus messages being sent over the original SMS platform. So it was green originally before iMessage came out for SMS and that remained, but then blue messages were the ones denoted over iMessage to show to a user that they were sending messages with enhanced [00:04:00] features like typing indicators, read receipts when turned on and so on and better group chats
Speaker 1: That doesn't change with RCS iMessage still doesn't support RCS. So iPhone users would continue to see green bubbles when texting friends on Android and Android users, wouldn't be able to reap the benefits of RCS when texting friends with iPhones in early 2022, Google SVP Hirosi ahe tweeted about the perceived impact of Apple's platform. Exclusivity saying Apple's [00:04:30] iMessage lock in is a documented strategy using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this. He added, we're not asking apple to make iMessage available on Android. We're asking apple to support the industry standard for modern messaging, RCS and iMessage just as they support the older SMS MMS standards by not incorporating RCS. Apple [00:05:00] is holding back the industry and holding back the user experience for not only Android users, but also their own customers. So with all that being said, will apple finally support RCS? The answer sadly is probably not iMessage users seem pretty content with the platform as it currently exists. And if an iPhone user really can't stand texting someone with green text bubbles, they can use any third party apps like WhatsApp messenger or a telegram. And
Speaker 2: I'm sure if apple ever did support RCS, that [00:05:30] they would still find another way to have a major exclusive messaging feature in there, regardless of whether they announced supported, uh, a better messaging experience to other platforms.
Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that this whole blue bubble green bubble stigma is really only a big deal in the us. That's because in other countries it's common for people to use a third party app like WhatsApp rather than the default messaging app on their phone, since SMS can be pricey. And also the iPhone isn't necessarily as dominant as it is here in the [00:06:00] us. Meanwhile, in the us, the iPhone and iMessage have such a firm grasp that anyone without an iPhone might even feel ostracized.
Speaker 2: The reality is apple and Google are always going to be competing against each other in the phone industry space and will constantly be building new features to one up each other to gain more market share. If both ecosystems were to adopt RCS, that would at least bring a better parody in terms of a texting experience. But there's always going to [00:06:30] be another way for one company or the other to continue to create an experience that makes users feel like this is the kind of phone I want to use. And I'm happy with that. And I will not move.
Speaker 1: Google has tried and failed many times to create a universal messaging platform through products like talk and Allo, which have some SPD out of existence, but it's still betting on RCS to give users a stable, modern day communication method that mirrors the iMessage experience. So how can you enable RCS [00:07:00] on Google messages? Let me show you first open up Google messages, then go to the three dots in the upper right hand corner and hit settings. Then go to chat features. Now you're going to hit the toggle by enabled chat features. If you have it enabled like I do here, you'll see a message at the top that says status connected. Now, if you wanna check, if someone else has RCS enabled the easiest way is to open up a conversation with them and see if the box where you compose text says chat message or text [00:07:30] message.
Speaker 1: If it says chat message, then RCS is enabled. But if it says text message, then it's not, and you'll be communicating via SMS. Another way to check this is to go to the text conversation, click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner and go to details. If you see an option that says only send SMS and MMS messages, that means RCS is enabled. If you don't see that, then it's not. Once that feature is on, you'll be able to see typing indicators and red receipts react [00:08:00] to messages and send high resolution photos and videos right now, one on one chats are end to end encrypted and Google says, it's working on adding end to end encryption for group messages too. This all might seem like no big deal to anyone who uses iMessage, but to me, and to any Android user, who's felt trapped in the outdated world of SMS. Texting RCS offers a long overdue and modern approach to messaging. It almost feels vindictive. Being able to show iPhone users that they're not the only ones with a texting app [00:08:30] fit for the 21st century. If only I could communicate that excitement without still being berated for having green texts, maybe someday.
