Google To Introduce New Standard Android Messaging App Soon

Rich Communications Services (RCS) is the future of messaging on mobile. AT&T and T-Mobile already use RCS for their own messaging services, and recently, Google and a bunch of global carriers have announced to combine resources and create a standard RCS client on Android. By implication, Android will soon get a new and freshly built messaging app.

According to Droid-Life, with RCS, you get features like “group chat, high-res photo sharing, read receipts, and more,” which really just means that old school, feature-less SMS text messaging will be put to bed, finally.

Google, along with América Móvil, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Globe Telecom, KPN, Millicom, MTN, Orange, PLAY, Smart Communications, Sprint, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telstra, TIM, Turkcell, VimpelCom, Vodafone, the GSMA, have announced an agreement that will make RCS adoption more important today than ever and that they plan to accelerate the availability of it using a universal client.

Google will build the Android RCS client, which will allow for a “consistent and interoperable messaging experience between all Android devices and across all operators worldwide, as well as ease interoperability testing between networks and significantly reduce time to market.”

The announcement didn’t include a specific time frame, but it sounds like it’ll happen sooner than later.