RCS: Fighting the death of SMS at WhatsApp’s hands and keeping urgent communication messaging open
Earlier this year, Google launched “Chat,” a plan to introduce Rich Communication Services (RCS) into the default SMS client in Android. RCS introduces several improvements over traditional SMS, and is currently integrated into Android Messages.
To speed up the rate at which operators were adopting RCS, Google acquired a company called Jibe Mobile in 2015. It also got mobile operators like Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone to adopt RCS.
9to5Google recently reported that 50 mobile network operators in 33 countries have launched RCS, and that the GSM Association forecasts that 40 new operators in 30 countries will implement the technology in the next year. In South Africa, however, MTN and Telkom said they do not have immediate plans to support the technology.
SMS is an old expensive technology (for users anyway) and will die out. We need to be sure that urgent messaging does not rely on a user subscribing to a walled garden proprietary service like WhatsApp. Imagine e-mail being only able to be received if you subscribed to WhatsApp? We need to receive alerts and notifications no matter what service we have or do not have running. RCS as an open standard can be supported by any and all messengers on phones.
See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/270939-fighting-the-death-of-sms-at-whatsapps-hands.html
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Fighting the death of SMS at WhatsApp’s hands Earlier this year, Google launched “Chat,” a plan to introduce Rich Communication Services into SMS. |