Google Messages on Android will now support RCS

Google has announced that its Messages app on Android will now support RCS messages (Rich Communication Services), these are basically the next version of SMS messages.

These new RCS messages make your text messages more like chats and they come with a range of features that are no available in standard SMS message.

To make your conversations more seamless, we’ve worked on upgrading traditional SMS text messaging with more useful chat features, powered by RCS (Rich Communication Services). When you and your friends message each other with these chat features, you can chat over Wi-Fi or mobile data, send and receive high-resolution photos and videos, and see if people have received your latest messages. Plus, you’ll get better group chats, with the ability to name groups, add and remove people to and from groups, and see if people haven’t seen the latest messages. 

Chat features are already available for some of you in Messages, and today we’re starting to broadly roll them out in the U.S. If you already have Messages, you’ll also be prompted to enable chat features in the coming weeks. If you don’t have Messages, you can download it on the Play Store. We expect this service to be broadly available in the U.S. by the end of year.

You can find out more details about Google and Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages for Android at the link below.