Rich Communication Services
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a communication protocol between mobile telephone carriers and between phone and carrier, aiming at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is richer, provides phonebook polling (for service discovery), and can transmit in-call multimedia. It is part of the broader IP Multimedia Subsystem. Google has added support for end-to-end encryption for all chats using RCS in their own app, Google Messages. End-to-end encryption is not a feature of RCS specified by GSMA.
A thread of conversation and media in the Google Messages application on Android | |
| Developer | GSMA |
|---|---|
| Type | Instant messaging |
| Launch date | September 15, 2008 |
| Platform(s) | various Android smartphones, iPhone in 2024 |
| Operating system(s) | Android 5 and later, iOS in 2024 |
| Status | Active |
| Website | www |
It is also marketed as Advanced Messaging, chat features, joyn, SMSoIP, Message+, and SMS+.
In early 2020, it was estimated that RCS was available from 88 operators in 59 countries with approximately 390 million users per month. By November 2020, RCS was available globally in Google Messages on Android, provided directly by Google if the operator does not provide RCS. By 2023, there were 800 million active RCS users on Google's platform and 1.2 billion handsets worldwide supporting RCS.