What is RCS & why would you want it?
Illustration by William Joel and Garret Beard
SMS/Text Messages to us android users has become antique, after apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Hike & Facebook Messenger taking over the Messenger market all we use our native messages app is to "Receive OTPs" & nothing more.
While Apple has its proprietary messaging service "iMessage" which enables users within the apple ecosystem to communicate seamlessly across multiple devices with not just text but also share media without invoking MMS, android users had no such feature unless you used a third-party application like WhatsApp, Telegram etc.
While all these Messengers are confined to their own app i.e., you cannot text someone on Telegram via WhatsApp. This is what Samsung along with other companies partnered with Google are trying to solve with RCS (Rich Communication Services)
What is RCS?
RCS is short for Rich Communication Services which is a new online protocol that is here is to replace SMS. Instead of depending on cellular service RCS will rely on your data connection. Since android has been adopted by multiple companies over the years a native messenger was needed to fill in the communication gap between android devices which is exactly what RCS will do. It will enable users to communicate & share multimedia with other android users regardless of the brand.
How is RCS better than SMS?
With RCS relying on your data it will add a lot more multimedia capabilities to your messaging. Besides the usual texts (plain and fancy), it will make it simple to send GIFs, high-resolution still photos, and videos. It will let you know if the person you’re texting is available, and can send you a receipt to prove they received your message. It will allow you to create longer messages and attach larger files. In other words, it can make standard text messaging look and work a lot like iMessage.
It also enables much better group messaging than SMS can handle.
(I'm personally excited about this)
Other Uses of RCS
With RCS enabled it makes it easier for companies to extend their services into messengers & make it easy for customers to interact & give feedback to companies via the messager.
WhatsApp has already partnered with a few companies like BookMyShow, Domino's etc. These brands now send you order confirmation on WhatsApp.
What if I told you with RCS you can Place an order, Make Payments, Track your Order & Even leave feedback about the service all through your native messages app, yes that's true & it will enable much more than this. (Ofcourse this will take time, adoption & some updates but this is possible)
RCS × Samsung Messages
Samsung Messages is already feature rich with
- Seamless Reminder Integration with Samsung reminders.
- Schedule Text Messages
- Start Messages
- Location Sharing (Via MMS)
- Gifs & Stickers (Via MMS)
- Multimedia & Location (Via MMS)
Imagine all this & more now seamlessly integrated with RCS over the internet.
I'm super excited for RCS & I can't stop talking about it. Let me know in the comments if you're excited too & what's your favourite feature.
