Google continues to push Apple toward RCS
For the uninitiated, RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a modern messaging standard and an upgrade to the SMS and MMS technologies from decades back. It brings features like typing indicators and read receipts, which you usually get on instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and telegram, to text messaging. RCS works over the internet and also lets you send larger files. Most Android smartphones today support RCS, enabling a feature-rich messaging system. However, Apple has been reluctant to adopt the new standard on iPhones. As such, cross-platform messaging between iPhones and Android phones still relies on outdated SMS and MMS technologies. Meaning, that users don’t get modern features such as typing indicators and read receipts. Google has been pushing apple to adopt RCS on iPhones, but the latter has deliberately avoided it for its own benefits. For one, iMessage on iPhones already offers those modern features, As such, its customers aren’t missing out on anything and even avoid using third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp. On top of that, iPhones distinguish messages sent from Android devices. Those messages appear in “green bubbles” while messages sent from other iPhones appear in “blue bubbles”. This creates a lock-in effect among a group of users. Since iPhones make Android users feel un-included, the situation plays into Apple’s hands nicely. Young users, in particular, want to avoid Android phones because of this “green bubble” phenomenon that breaks group chats. If Apple adopted RCS and stopped this practice, messaging between iPhones and Android would have been much more interoperable and inclusive. “These problems exist because Apple refuses to adopt modern texting standards when people with iPhones and Android phones text each other,” Google says on the aforementioned website. “There’s a really clear solution” to it.
There’s no telling if Apple plans to adopt RCS
Google has taken multiple subtle and some not-so-subtle digs at Apple over the past few months regarding this subject. Many iPhone users are also demanding the company adopt RCS so they can better communicate with their Android-holding friends. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, Apple seems adamant to avoid the modern messaging standard. Coinciding with the launch of the new website, Google also published an interview with Elmar Weber, an engineering head at the company who oversees developments around Google Messages. Weber reiterated the firm’s words that RCS would fix all the issues with messaging between Android and iOS devices without breaking anything. Apple would not lose anything at all, while its users would gain a lot. Hopefully, the iPhone maker will consider adopting RCS soon.
