RCS Stories December 2
Starting today, Google is rolling out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in group chats for Messages users enrolled in the beta program.
RCS Stories October 28
Google Messages is the vehicle that drives the RCS chat experience for millions of Android users around the world, but that experience still isn’t completely done. After bringing end-to-end encryption, Google Messages still needs to support E2EE to group chats over RCS, and it seems that’s starting to show up.
RCS Stories October 20
Google is rolling out a handful of new features for Messages today to make the core experience more convenient, like a YouTube PiP. This follows a similar set of announcements back in March.
RCS Stories October 6
Pixel 7 unveil included always-on display, astrophotography, and RCS digs at the iPhone
In announcing the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, Google started by making a series of digs about the iPhone and how the Pixel series was first to several features.
RCS Stories September 30
Google Messages: How to use emoji reactions with any recipient
In Google Messages, you can send reactions to received messages with a selection of emoji, no matter who texted you. This guide will quickly show you how to react to messages.
RCS Stories September 28
Before Google’s “Get The Message” campaign in August, Android’s Messages app was updated with iMessage reactions at the start of this year. In a very weird turn of events, Apple appears to be taking credit for Google adding iMessage reactions on Android.
RCS Stories September 16
Google Messages is finally catching up with other chat apps by preparing a way to directly reply to RCS messages — here’s a first look at replies in action.
RCS Stories September 7
During an interesting session at the 2022 Code Conference with Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs, Tim Cook said that Apple customers are apparently not asking for RCS support on the iPhone.
RCS Stories August 22
[Update: Fixed] RCS won’t connect on mobile data for some Fi Pixel users with Android 13
Some Google Fi customers cannot get RCS to connect on their Pixel phones after installing Android 13. That said, this does not appear to be a widespread issue.
RCS Stories August 12
On Tuesday, Google kicked off its “Get The Message” RCS campaign online and will be continuing with digital billboards in NYC going after Apple.
RCS Stories August 9
For the past year, Google has been increasingly calling out Apple for not adopting RCS (Rich Communication Services) on the iPhone. Meant to replace SMS/MMS, it has a number of technical advancements that would improve the messaging experience between Android and iOS users. Google is now launching a “Get The Message” pressure campaign in hopes that Apple will change its mind on RCS.
RCS Stories June 18
In recent months, Google has been publicly pressuring Apple to adopt RCS on the iPhone, and its latest volley involves an “unofficial lyric explainer video” for “Texts Go Green” from Drake’s new album.
RCS Stories June 2
iMessage and RCS: An unlikely pair we all want to see [Video]
iMessage is pretty great, there’s no denying that, but adding RCS support to the app would make a better user experience for everyone – iPhone users and Android users alike. While Apple seems unlikely to ever add support willingly, if Apple has the courage to put user experience just a bit ahead of monetary decisions, RCS would be the first step.
RCS Stories June 1
Last month we reported on the rampant abuse of RCS in Google Messages that was flooding users in India with ads, and now, Google is stopping that abuse to address the problem.
RCS Stories May 17
Advertising tends to creep its way into anything and everything you’re using in some form, and it seems that text messaging is a focus for some brands in India. Lately, Google Messages and its RCS messaging has been abused by businesses in India.
RCS Stories May 11
Today at Google I/O 2022, Google confirmed that over 500 million people are actively using RCS messaging and took the chance to throw another dig at Apple.
RCS Stories February 25
In a big win for Google, its Messages app is the default client for the Galaxy S22 in the US. However, Google’s RCS backend might not be powering your messaging experience and that might result in an extra step during the set-up process.
RCS Stories January 31
Google and Deutsche Telekom bring Messages RCS, new Android TV box to Germany
Google and Deutsche Telekom today announced an “expanded partnership” that covers RCS, Android TV, and cloud. On the consumer-facing front, Telekom Germany users will be getting access to RCS, while there’s a new MagentaTV One streaming device.
RCS Stories January 10
Over the past year, Google has publicly pressured Apple to support Rich Communication Services. The latest salvo this weekend was the harshest yet, but RCS on the iPhone is not the panacea to Google’s historical messaging woes, nor will support lead to a transformatively better experience for Android users when interacting with their iPhone counterparts.
After critical comments on Saturday, Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer is back with some “thoughts and clarifications” on RCS and iMessage.
Messaging is a core part of any smartphone, and it’s something that Apple has really nailed with the iPhone and iMessage. Googlers have voiced their frustration recently over how Apple uses iMessage as a tool for lock-in and while Apple’s resistance to RCS and other cross-platform standards is certainly annoying, the context of Google’s countless failures in messaging don’t really help the company’s case.
RCS Stories January 8
Hiroshi Lockheimer oversees all of Google’s operating systems as Senior Vice President of Platforms and Ecosystems. In recent years, he has been very critical of Apple not supporting the RCS standard to make iOS messaging more interoperable with Android, and the latest salvo on iMessage is the harshest yet.
RCS Stories December 25, 2021
Just got a new Android smartphone for the holidays? If it’s your first one it could be a little intimidating so, to get you started, here are 5 apps you should immediately install or set up on a new Android device. Alternatively, if you’re not already using these apps, it might be time to give them a shot!
RCS Stories August 31, 2021
In the midst of Hurricane Ida, I’ve found that RCS is not ready to be depended upon, while Google Messages has not thought out all the edge cases for the future.
RCS Stories July 20, 2021
Messaging has always been a tough point for Android phones compared to iPhones simply because iMessage is, put simply, very good both for its experience and its security. As Google finally solves that problem with expanded adoption of RCS with end-to-end encryption, the company is pushing for its rival, Apple, to do the same by pointing out that the current fallback method instantly drops security.
From 2022, Verizon will begin preloading Google Messages as the default SMS and RCS messaging app on all Android phones sold by the US carrier.
RCS Stories June 30, 2021
Google and AT&T announced today that the carrier would be using the Messages app and Rich Communicate Services (RCS) on all Android phones in the US.
RCS Stories April 13, 2021
After months of silence it seemed all but certain that CCMI, a project from all major US carriers to bring RCS to the masses was probably dead, but now a report seems to confirm as much. The Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative for RCS is — probably — dead.
RCS Stories December 16, 2020
RCS is the next big step in messaging, but carriers have delayed the transition time and time again, to the point where Google took its own step to roll out RCS to every Android phone in the world through its own app. Now, Google’s RCS rollout is expanding to a second app, Samsung Messages.
RCS Stories November 19, 2020
In mid-2019, Google decided to take over and speed up the launch of RCS. A little over 17 months later, Google announced today that it has completed a global rollout of RCS, while Messages will start testing end-to-end encryption.
RCS Stories August 24, 2020
[Update: A few more] Google Messages starts RCS rollout in several new countries
Google Messages has been rolling out RCS support to Android users across the globe and, now, users in Italy are getting in on the fun.
RCS Stories August 15, 2020
Handy Google Messages shortcut reroutes an RCS message back to SMS
As RCS continues to roll out more widely around the globe, Google is improving the feature through its Messages app. The latest feature added is a neat trick that lets you reroute an RCS message to SMS in Google Messages.
RCS Stories June 19, 2020
Google Messages makes it easy to deregister your phone number from RCS
RCS is the next big step in improving messaging on Android, but there will be some people who just don’t want it. Recently, Google opened up a form that makes it easy to disable RCS completely on Google Messages for your number by deregistering it.
RCS Stories May 29, 2020
The rollout of RCS has been slow, but as Sundar Pichai mentioned recently, it’s starting to gain momentum. This week, user reports reveal that Google is apparently rolling out RCS support to Google Messages users in India.
RCS Stories May 26, 2020
Today, the folks at APKMirror got ahold of an internal “dogfood” build of Google Messages version 6.2. Here, “dogfood” is used in the sense of the phrase “eat your own dog food,” meaning actually use the product you’re building. Of course, our APK Insight team immediately dug in to see what all is coming with the next version of Google Messages. While we’re still actively looking through the many changes found within, one in particular stood out — end-to-end encryption for RCS messages.
Update 5/26: We now have a screenshot of one of the end-to-end encryption settings pages in action.
Google’s initiative to bring RCS to every Android user has been a slow process, but it’s expanded quite a lot, even just in the past few months. Today, T-Mobile has announced a partnership with Google to bring RCS to every Android user on T-Mobile and Metro.
RCS Stories May 19, 2020
Between the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing projects, and recent reports, things are kind of a whirlwind for Google at the moment. In an interview released today, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai discussed the future of the Google Pixel lineup, progress of RCS, and how COVID-19 has been affecting Google’s business. Here’s the summary.
RCS Stories May 13, 2020
For the last few months, our APK Insight team has been tracking Google’s efforts to add emoji reactions to RCS and specifically their own Messages app. Some are now reporting that they’re able to add iMessage-like reactions to RCS messages.
RCS Stories May 7, 2020
RCS messaging has had a rocky rollout so far, but Samsung and Google are now teaming up directly to enable the rich text message service on more Galaxy phones.
RCS Stories March 20, 2020
RCS chat is Google’s latest attempt to fix the Android messaging mess, and slowly the company has been rolling out the functionality to Android users around the world. Now, Google Messages is delivering RCS to users in Spain.
RCS Stories March 5, 2020
Google has recently begun making progress toward bringing reactions to RCS, or at least their version of RCS in the Google Messages app. In the latest salvo in the petty war of blue bubble vs green bubble, Google Messages is getting ready to send some very iMessage-like reaction text messages, such as “Liked a photo.”
RCS Stories February 26, 2020
RCS is widely rolled out in the US, Mexico, UK, and France after Google took charge of the rollout last year. There are now reports this afternoon that RCS is down, with many Android users stuck on the “Connecting…” status in Google Messages.
RCS Stories February 10, 2020
Last October, a trick to enable RCS in the Messages app on any Android phone emerged. Google today announced that it will be killing “unsupported workarounds” by the end of February.
RCS Stories December 12, 2019
RCS Stories December 9, 2019
Last month, Google unveiled plans to bring RCS to all Android phones in the United States, scheduled to roll out over the following weeks. Today, a new update to Carrier Services seems to immediately enable RCS on some Android devices, including Google Pixel phones.
RCS Stories November 14, 2019
Last month, a method was discovered to force enable RCS/Chat messaging on almost any Android phone with the Google Messages app. As of this morning, this trick is no longer needed, as Google has officially launched RCS messaging in the US, bypassing carriers. Google has now explained how this RCS migration will affect those who used the unofficial trick.
How to enable RCS messaging on Google Messages for Android
RCS messaging is finally coming to Android smartphones in the United States after a trial in some other countries. If you want to get in on the action, here’s what you’ll need to do to enable RCS messaging on Android.
Earlier this year, Google took over the RCS rollout from carriers in the UK, France, and Mexico. With no market still so reliant on SMS as the US, Google today announced that it’s officially rolling out RCS in Messages stateside.
