Google should go viral with a real iPager, and what actually gets RCS on the iPhone

Abner Li | Sep 22 2023 - 2:00 pm PT

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:

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After it was formalized in August of 2022, Google placed ads on digital billboards in New York City and later Las Vegas during CES 2023:

The latest salvo happened yesterday and compared the SMS-only iPhone to a pager. It involved the conceptualization of an iPager, which we found out today comes in colors with humorous names: Ketchup, Roquefort, Mustard, Mayo, Green Pepper, Soy Sauce, Gravy, Eggplant, and 1000 Island.

That 72-second video currently has over 800,000 views (though Google could have run it as a YouTube ad, which would boost the view count). Compared to last year’s start of the campaign, which did spur people to post the hashtag, I think the iPager is a more tangible marketing concept that gets across why SMS is so outdated. In this respect, Google has a hit and should run with it by actually making the iPager – even just a plastic version with a static screen, or better yet one that cycled through the different messages by pressing the up/down buttons – and doing some elaborate giveaway. (Remember that time buying a KitKat gave you free Google Play credit and the chance of winning a Nexus 7? Good marketing times.)

While Google marketing is getting better, my colleagues and I are of the opinion that Apple will not adopt RCS because of this or any other Google pressure campaign. What would get them to support RCS on the iPhone would be carriers deciding to either end or, more likely, limit SMS/MMS. Down the road, there might be a technical reason to stop supporting it as networks get updated (as seen with the 3G wind down or move to Voice-over-LTE). The other possibility is the introduction of regulation or implementation of standards. After all, it was the EU that pushed Apple to move to USB-C on iPhones this year, not just the tech itself.

I’d like to think that Google is realistically aware of that fact, and that it finds other marketing value in Get The Message. If so, it should really go all out and make the iPager.