Google has been pushing RCS as a new standard for texting to replace SMS and SMS for a long time. The tech giant keeps adding new features even as the company works to get more people to join.
In a new move, Google has said that RCS will be turned on by default for all users, unless the user turned it off before. Also, RCS texts sent through the texts app will now be encrypted end-to-end by default.
Enrolling in RCS will no longer involve directly signing up for the service or registering with a phone number. Instead, it will happen automatically in the background, without the user having to do anything.
With end-to-end encryption, both Google and the network companies won’t be able to read the messages. This is a big step forward for the service. The company also said that group chats in Messages are also secured from start to finish.
In addition to encryption, RCS has a number of improvements over SMS, such as typing indicators, read receipts, and the ability to share photos and videos with a high quality.
Google Messages is starting to look like Android users’ real answer to iMessage. Google is trying to get more phone companies to use RCS, but Apple is one of the biggest holdouts. If Apple did use RCS, texting between iPhones and Android phones would be much better.
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