It’s taken the higher a part of half a decade, however the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol lastly has a path to ubiquity within the US. Following related bulletins from T-Mobile and AT&T earlier within the yr, Verizon (Engadget’s mother or father firm) said today it is working with Google to carry the next-generation SMS substitute to all of its clients.

By the top of the yr, current Verizon subscribers who use the service’s Message+ app will get full entry to the RCS suite, together with real-time typing indicators and browse receipts. Then, beginning subsequent yr, all the firm’s telephones will include the Messages by Google app preinstalled. Once that occurs, RCS perks like end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations and the flexibility to ship full-resolution images will likely be an app away.

To say right now’s announcement is a major milestone for Google can be an understatement. The firm has been pushing RCS for years, and at instances it appeared just like the undertaking was fated to languish like so lots of Google’s previous cell messaging efforts. Due to the necessity for service buy-in, the protocol did not “just work” like iMessage, at the very least not initially. 

In the early years, even in the event you went out of your approach to obtain Google Messages, there was no assure you’d get any of its promised advantages. That’s as a result of, most of the time, it was probably the individual you have been texting did not have an RCS-capable app put in on their telephone, nor have been they with a service that was onboard with the platform. That meant most Android chats defaulted to SMS. With Google Messages now the default on most new Android telephones within the US, that is a state of affairs that needs to be the exception, not the norm. Today’s announcement additionally leaves Apple in an odd place. Once an innovator within the house, the corporate is now on the surface wanting in at a extra broadly adopted ecosystem.