Google now appears to be readying a new Android feature in Settings that will help users discover which apps support RCS-based chat. That’s according to a recent APK teardown of Google Play Services performed by XDA Developers. That could also indicate that underlying Android features may soon deliver RCS chatting to other messaging apps.
Specifically, the updated code includes strings that imply users will be able to see which of their installed apps support RCS chats. Perhaps just as pertinently, the strings also point to various OEM-specific guides. Only one of those has already been added, pointing to Samsung devices. But those presumably walk users through how to set up and use RCS features on a given device or in an app.
What is RCS Chat and what benefits does it bring to messaging apps?
Rich communication services — or RCS — has been around for quite some time. It first started appearing in the news as early as 2015. More recently, Google has worked hard to bring the underlying features to every Android device via Google Messages. And to a large extent, it’s succeeded. RCS is now available for just about every user via that app.
The benefits of that cannot be understated. Closely resembling traditional chat services, RCS brings with it a plethora of advantages over the traditional SMS messaging it’s intended to replace. To begin with, it effectively eliminates problems with long messages exceeding the character limit. Ordinarily, the result is multiple messages arriving and sometimes out of order. That isn’t a problem for RCS.
Beyond that basic feature, since messages can be sent over Wi-Fi or mobile data, file size limits are increased too. That means improved sharing of content like photos, audio, and videos at a higher quality.
Yet another benefit of RCS is its ability to readily handle group discussions. With traditional text messaging, group messages often deliver a mixed result. Sometimes messages arrive multiple times in both a group chat and an individual thread. Or they might not arrive as a group chat at all. There are a number of other issues there as well, which should be familiar to anybody who’s ever sent a group text.
Aside from bringing those group messages into a more cogent single thread, users can also rename chats with RCS. That’s in addition to being able to remove people from a group and more.
When might this arrive and for what devices?
It isn’t immediately clear whether or not Google will deliver RCS chat features outlined here for other apps in the near future. What is apparent is that the feature will remain app-independent. That means users will still need to navigate to an individual messaging app, set it as the default, and turn on RCS there to use it.
Another aspect of the feature that hasn’t been made readily apparent is whether this will be device-dependent. Namely, the new RCS chat feature could be destined for just a handful of handsets. Google could limit it to its own Pixel devices or to flagships. Conversely, it might limit the feature to gadgets running pure Android.
Irrespective of that, the new RCS chat apps discovery feature appears to be well underway. It also seems to be a part of Google Play Services rather than something that will require a full OS version update. So it should arrive sooner than later — if and when Google chooses to launch it.