9to5Google
By Andrew Romero
What is RCS messaging?
RCS stands for Rich Communications Services and is a protocol standard used by Google and carriers to provide messaging services that can handle more than measly SMS texts.
RCS messaging is like "smart" texting. Much like how Apple has iMessage, RCS can do pretty much the same stuff using WiFi or mobile data. For the time being, only Android users can use RCS messaging with each other.
With RCS messaging on Google Messages, you can do cool things take advantage of read receipts and typing indicators. Read receipts let you know when others have seen your text while typing indicators let others know when you're typing. Both of these are super useful features that SMS texting can't handle.
Something else that's incredibly useful with RCS messaging is end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption is responsible for making sure your messages and content shared is completely private and extremely difficult to get a hold of. Apps like Telegram make use of this feature and for this reason, are becoming increasingly popular.
Useful features in Google Messages
Google Messages has a lot of cool features, and there's a good reason you should use it for texting on your Android device. For instance, you can turn on Smart Reply, Google Assistant suggestions, and suggested actions.
Smart Reply will actively suggest sentences for you to reply with. This comes in handy when you don't want to type something out and just need to answer with a simple "Sure!" On the other hand, Google Assistant suggestions will actively try to suggest places or websites for you to send to whoever you're having a conversation with. For instance, if you mention a restaurant, Google Assistant might suggest the Google Maps page for that particular restaurant. Finally, suggested actions will suggest that you share your location if you type something like "I'm not too far away" and send it.
In all, Google Messages is a great way to hold a conversation and RCS messaging makes it even better. For more information on how you can set up RCS messaging and some of the features listed, click the link below for the full article on 9to5Google.