Among the many AI announced and discussed at the Google I/O event, the focus was on RCS or “Rich Communication Services”. RCS, purported to replace SMS, was first launched by Google in 2019. Four years after deployment, the company announced that his RCS monthly active users are at his 800 million, and he is expected to surpass 1 billion by the end of the year. But what’s so special about RCS? Also, is this how Google promotes its own messaging service?
Rich Communication Service is a messaging protocol similar to SMS (Short Messaging Service). RCS uses the Internet to send messages, but SMS service requires a cellular network. This enables group chat, video, audio, images, real-time viewing, and other features of messaging apps such as Apple’s iMessage.
At the event, Google’s VP of Product Management Samir Samat explained the basics of “sending high-quality images and videos, getting input notifications, and end-to-end encryption,” whose messaging platform is Google’s RCS. Emphasized how it should accompany.
RCS message UI. sauce: jive google
Further updates to the messaging service were announced at the Google I/O event. Google Messages, which supports both SMS and RCS, adds an AI add-on called “”.magic compose‘ This helps define what the message sounds like. The company claims it can make conversations “expressive, fun, and playful.”
sauce: Youtube
all too similar
RCS features sound impressive, but they all ring a familiar bell. Doesn’t a platform that does all this already exist?Whatsapp is the world’s leading messenger app with over his 2 billion monthly active users. Whatsapp works in the same format with end-to-end encryption. The biggest difference is that Whatsapp acts as another platform that needs to be downloaded, whereas anyone with an Android can communicate via her RCS.
Whatsapp has additional security features not available in the messaging protocol RCS, such as message disappearance, message blocking, and group chat privacy settings. In fact, when RCS started, encryption was done in transit rather than end-to-end. This meant that Google and your carrier could read your messages. Although it’s now fully encrypted, the latest AI updates to Google’s messaging service have resurfaced security concerns.
apple doesn’t work
As Google increasingly pushes RCS to various carriers, one player has been left unaffected by this change. The conflict between Google and Apple has been going on for some time over the latter’s failure to adopt his RCS. Google didn’t miss an opportunity to attack Apple at the recent Google I/O event. Samat said that if all mobile operating systems adopted his RCS, “everyone could participate in a group chat” regardless of the “device” people used.
Last year, Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of Google Platforms and Ecosystems, said: tweeted How Apple is hurting the industry and user experience for Android and Apple users by not having an RCS.
It wasn’t just tweets and Google blogs by Google executives, there was even a campaign called “Apple #GetTheMessage” targeting Apple, which is run by Android.
Apple is adamant that it will not adopt RCS, and Tim Cook has made that position clear. At last year’s conference, when one user explained to her mother on her Android that she couldn’t send a particular video in her SMS, Cook said, “Buy her an iPhone. Please.” Apple has always been obsessed with building and maintaining products. user ecosystem. iMessage is automatically available on all Apple devices, eliminating the need to download a separate application and naturally growing your user base. This clearly means he has no room for RCS.
In June 2022, Google disabled its RCS service in India, accusing the company of violating its anti-spam policy and sending unsolicited messages to people. Because RCS provides richer message content as opposed to the usual plain text over SMS, companies have abused that feature, leading to the deactivation of RCS.
Interestingly, the company didn’t say anything about security measures to deal with issues like spam messages at this time.
Considering how other players such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, etc. are present in the market, and how companies like Apple continue to protect their user base, RCS users will reach 1 billion per month. Google’s prediction that it will reach seems a bit far-fetched.
