RCS support in Google Messages is spreading even further, as it arrived in four more countries, that we know of. According to Android Police, users from Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Slovenia now have access to RCS in Google Messages.
Google Messages just got RCS support in four more countries
Back in April, RCS support became available in Google Messages for users in Italy, Singapore, and Portugal. Soon after that, it became available in Argentina, Pakistan, Poland, and Turkey. Then, last month, the support rolled out to users in Denmark, and the Netherlands.
If you do use Google Messages in one of those countries, a pop-up will appear within the app. It may not appear straight away, but it should appear soon. It will let you know that you can take advantage of RCS features.
You will essentially be able to use Google Messages as both your SMS and instant messaging app. To users who have the same feature enabled, you’ll be able to send images, GIFs, videos, and so on.
In other words, you’ll be able to use this app as you would Facebook Messenger, Viber, or WhatsApp, for example. If the user on the other end does not have a feature, you’ll still be able to send an SMS or MMS.
It’s not easy to spot who uses RCS, but it’s visible if you know where to look
How will you know the difference? Well, you don’t spot an obvious indicator on the main display, or the list of your contacts. Not even the color of the bubbles will be different based on what you use, as it is with iMessage.
So, how will you know? Well, once you start typing, you’ll see the difference in the send icon. If there is no ‘SMS’ or ‘MMS’ writing below it, then you’re using the online features of Google Messages, aka RCS.
RCS brings along typing indicators, read receipts, and proper group conversation support, as a regular instant messaging service.
RCS messaging is still not widespread, as you can see. Google is pushing it to become available to as many phones as possible, just to mimic what iMessage does for iPhones.
This tech is supposed to replace, or at least work in collaboration with SMS in the future. RCS is often referred to as SMS 2.0, and it remains to be seen if it will completely push out SMS.
That is not as likely, as long as Apple doesn’t start using it. We don’t see that happening, at least not anytime soon. Allowing RCS on iPhones would basically be creating direct competition for iMessage, but a multi-platform one.