During the Android Show main as much as Google I/O, Google on Tuesday supplied a short replace on the adoption of the RCS (Rich Communication Services) protocol, an improve to SMS that provides high-resolution images and movies, typing indicators, learn receipts, improved group chat, and extra. The firm shared that the messaging customary now helps over a billion messages per day within the U.S.
This metric is predicated on a median of the final 28 days, Google famous.
The stat is notable as a result of Google fought for years to get Apple to undertake help for RCS on iOS, permitting for higher communication between Android and Apple gadgets. Previously, iPhone customers who acquired texts from buddies on Android needed to cope with blurry movies and pictures, and couldn’t as simply handle group chats when their green-bubbled buddies joined. Unlike with iMessage, group chats with Android customers couldn’t be renamed, nor may folks be added or eliminated, and also you couldn’t exit if you needed. Emoji reactions additionally didn’t work correctly, resulting in annoying texts to let you know the way an Android consumer reacted, as a substitute of simply displaying their emoji response straight.
That modified with the autumn 2024 launch of iOS 18, when Apple lastly added RCS help to its Messages app. Though the performance has been upgraded, Apple nonetheless shows RCS chats as inexperienced bubbles, hoping to maintain the stigma of being an Android consumer intact. This is especially vital amongst younger folks within the U.S., the place demand for the blue bubbles has cemented the iPhone as teenagers’ hottest machine.
Surprisingly, Google didn’t share different stats round RCS, like these detailing the variety of customers extra particularly or the service help.
