Google partners Sprint to bring ‘Rich Communication’ to SMS technology

Much has changed over the past decade in the world of mobile phones but SMS text messaging is still as simple and basic as it was when it started off. To change that and help SMS compete with the likes of modern day messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp, Google is bringing RCS – Rich Communications Service, an upgrade to the SMS standard – to Android devices in partnership with Sprint.

Google said in a blog post that Sprint will be the first carrier to use its RCS-enabled Messenger app to update its text messaging service on Android devices.

RCS will offer an enhanced messaging experience to users, with features like better group chats, high-resolution photosharing, read receipts and typing indicators.

Notably, the new service will also allow Android users to type in longer messages with GIFs and pictures without any constraint as it works over the internet.

In February this year, Google announced that it would work with more than 56 wireless carriers around the world to integrate the standard developed by carriers through the GSM Association into its Messenger app. Sprint is the first company to announce that Google's RCS client in its Messenger app will work on its network, provided they are on Android KitKat or higher and have set Messenger as their default SMS application.

From next year all new Android devices from Sprint will come with Messenger for Android preloaded as the default SMS and RCS messaging experience. Subscribers currently using select LG and Nexus phones from Sprint will have the messaging experience upgraded automatically through an app update, and others can manually update by downloading the Messenger app from the Play Store.

If you think that this launch is going to revolutionize the SMS technology, you need to wait as RCS is not universally adopted. RCS is made available by carriers and not by devices, and it won’t work on older Android smartphones.

Interoperability among carriers and eventually among operating systems is the next step for the search engine company and it plans to announce compatibility with more carriers over the next few months.