While Apple is still gatekeeping its ‘blue bubbles’ exclusive to iOS, Google has been advancing RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging on Android for years. On Tuesday, the Google 10 announced that Google Messages will have RCS conversations enabled by default.
This means that all chats are now end-to-end encrypted, unless the user previously disabled it. And this also means that messages are kept private from Google and telco carriers.
Google also introduced group chats in app, that also have end-to-end encryption.
RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging is an updated messaging protocol that provides enhanced features compared to traditional SMS messaging.
These features can include the ability to send high-resolution images and videos, see when someone is typing, and receive read receipts.
RCS messaging is gradually replacing SMS messaging as the default protocol on Android phones. However, Apple seems unfazed. Despite Google’s heavy marketing campaign called ‘Get the Message 112‘, Apple has not implemented RCS on its iPhones. In fact, Tim Cook has suggested to just buy an iPhone 76 instead for that highly coveted ‘blue bubbles’.
