T-Mobile first began utilizing RCS way back in 2015, but when it first rolled out it was only available on a single device. Fast-forward to today and RCS on T-Mobile customers send more than 700 million RCS messages each day, and the RCS experience is about to get even bigger.
T-Mobile has teamed up with Google to implement a full standards-based RCS Universal Profile 1.0 interconnect with Google’s Messages chat. This means that T-Mo and Metro by T-Mobile customers can get RCS in the Google Messages app while chatting with other Android users around the world.
To get this feature, you’ll need an Android device that supports RCS Universal Profile 1.0. There are nearly 40 phones on T-Mobile and Metro that support the feature and T-Mobile aims to bring the feature to all RCS-enabled phones. You’ll also need to be chatting with an Android user who has the chat features enabled in the Google Messages app.
T-Mo says that customers have an RCS-capable device don’t need to do anything or download an app to get RCS features because they’re built into the phone’s messaging app.
RCS stands for Rich Communication Services and it offers an upgraded messaging experience over traditional SMS texting. These including typing indicators, read receipts, better group chatting, support for high-resolution photos, and chatting over Wi-Fi as well as mobile data.
Google has been working to expand RCS messaging to more Android users around the world in recent years. It broadly rolled out RCS in its Messages app to every Android user in the US late last year, and now with this partnership T-Mo is implementing this RCS Universal Profile 1.0 for its devices, making it so T-Mo and Metro customers can enjoy the benefits of RCS when chatting with anyone else using RCS in Google Messages without having to do anything extra.
Source: T-Mobile