We live in a period of advance innovation, paving way for sensational discoveries every day. Google constantly takes various initiatives to provide better technology service. The next big thing in mobile communications & the hotly anticipated trade for normal SMS is finally in testing and ready to be officially launched by Google!
RCS or Google’s Rich Communication Service (RCS) is all set to elevate messaging system with features like typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality photo sharing, messaging over WiFi and much more. Not just that, Rich Communication Service is also expected to replace SMS as the new interactive messaging service.
FEATURES OF RCS MESSAGING & CALL
Rich Communication Service messaging simply facilitates messaging through carriers, if both the sender and receiver has RCS enabled, then the messages will be delivered through their LTE bandwidth and standard SMS charges won’t be applicable. If a receiver does not have Rich Communication Service, it will be delivered through standard SMS. It lets you view the last seen, read and deliver the notification, facilitates sharing of images (you can choose the quality as well), share videos, create group chats with 100 participants, share location, send files, have nicknames and many more.
Though similar to WhatsApp in functionality, Rich Communication Service will not have end-to-end encryption unlike most of the existing messaging platforms. However, Google is diligently working on encrypting RCS chats with the advanced 256-bit encryption protocol.
Rich Communication Service also provides a plethora of services on call. You can share your location and choose to share a particular location with the other person. You can do screen-sharing & play games or write something on the screen so that the other side can see them or send alerts for important calls.
THE IDEA OF UNIVERSAL RCS PROFILE
Rich Communication Service protocol was initially designed to transform mobile networks and bring about a revolutionary change. It got off to a very slow start: formed by a group of industry promoters in 2007 and brought under the wings of the GSM Association, a trade body, in 2008, but carrier participation and different approaches made it difficult and costly to bring it to users. In 2018, Google announced it had been working with every major cell phone carrier in the world to adopt the RCS protocol.
Despite all the challenges, courtesy to the GSMA’s universal RCS profile, carriers can now provide RCS messaging across the Android ecosystem. Mobile operators can deploy their infrastructure, or they have the option to use the Jibe Platform from Google, which supports the universal RCS profile. This will enable all operators worldwide to provide an open, consistent, and globally interoperable messaging service across Android devices.
RCS IN THE WORLD OF BRANDS & BUSINESSES
The platform aims to upgrade today’s business messaging experience by enabling brands to send more useful and interactive messages like forms, images, and video that aren’t supported by SMS and combining the best of Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp into one platform. This intern facilitates sending of customized campaigns, improves customer experience & makes the CTA (call-to-action) much easier.
Also, according to GSMA, 86% of smartphones will be RCS -enabled by 2020 & business messaging market is projected to reach $74 billion by 2021. It sure is a beaming data!
ENABLING RCS ON GOOGLE’S MESSAGES
Want to enable RCS on Google’s Messages? Have it done in these easy steps!
- Tap the three dots on the upper right-hand side of the app
- Open the settings & choose ‘Advanced Settings’
- Enable Rich Communication Service .
If you don’t see the advanced settings option, then your carrier doesn’t support it by default.
Nevertheless, with such an expansive bunch of advantages, comes a lot of disadvantages also. One should keep in mind that since RCS is new, there would be persistent issues that need to be resolved before it replaces SMS completely.
