RCS (Rich Communication Services) was supposed to unite the android industry. But with the news that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have all abandoned their efforts on the unified messaging platform, the iMessage-esque Android messaging service looks to be in even more turbulence. is.
According to the communication site Light Reading, the three major US carriers have withdrawn from the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI), which aims to standardize RCS by 2020.
CCMI was a consortium led by Sprint in 2019 to develop messaging apps that rely on RCS so that Android users can use platforms like Apple's iMessage. . RCS enables advanced messaging capabilities and is already standardized in international markets. And RCS brings the features iMessage users have enjoyed for years: read notifications, high-quality media, and great group conversations. CCMI was thinking of developing a separate app for Android users to download and make these features interoperable.
But CCMI ran into a deadlock the moment it was announced. Google has long claimed Android support for RCS, but the original CCMI press release didn't even mention the company's name. After that, CCMI's standard-bearer, Sprint, was acquired by T-Mobile. In addition, RCS-enabled messaging apps such as Google's Messages have appeared on the Play Store, adding to the fragmentation of the platform.
While the big three U.S. carriers have been relatively silent on the issue, Verizon told Light Reading that "the responsibility rests with CCMI's owners."
For now, only T-Mobile is serious about RCS, and it plans to make it the default messaging app on all smartphones purchased from the carrier going forward. But that alone doesn't solve interoperability issues between Android users. Verizon and AT&T offer their own messaging apps for devices sold on their respective networks. Both carriers have also announced commitments to RCS, but only for chats within their respective networks.
RCS is a standard announced in 2008 as the next generation version of SMS, which is still used to send text messages. However, SMS is a rather outdated technology and apps like WhatsApp have become popular due to their advanced features. Google is the biggest backer of RCS, and has acquired middleware company Jibe to bring it into Messages for better compatibility.
The only way to bring true RCS compatibility to all Android users is to default to apps your carrier already supports and trash the rest. But that won't happen because carriers haven't figured out how to monetize RCS. It also hasn't resolved the chat issue with iOS devices. Apple does not support this standard, presumably to make iMessage exclusive to Apple devices.
Android users have long complained about the isolation of the messaging ecosystem on the platform. As an Android user, the best way to deal with this would be to set the Messages app as your default to protest these complicated efforts. Apparently Google is betting on it.
