The multinational tech gaint, Google has assured it users that it shall be rolling out its RCS [Rich Communication service] support this month with or without the carriers. They said this pointing out Uk and France as point of trial start.
Most mobile users have find it difficult to switch from iPhone to Android because of the SMS replecement service [iMessgae] being controled by Apple. With the rolling out of RCS support for android phones, users won't be held back from switching to android phones anymore.
Googles decission came as a result of carriers refusal or dragging of feets when its comes to rolling out RCS support. They initailly wanted carriers to roll out this support themselves so that it won't be controlled by them Google alone unlike Apple iMessage. Carriers refusal is what has kept android users held back to SMS all this times.
Googles' RCS messaging is will still be hooked to phone numbers, users will only be able to text and receive messages from their phones. Unlike Apple's iMessge, Googles Chat will not have that and so, communication will still be locked to your phone. Manipulations of messages can be done using your desktop programs but the sending and receiving will be with users phones and not their secondary devices.
Awesome as it sounds, there are downside this;
There will be no end-to-end encryption on RCS support which means texts sent by users can be read in transit by any body with the Know-how on geting in, top of them is our carriers and by Google's servers.
Though Google has promise to eventually make end-to-end encryption available. They have assured users that messages sent will be deleted from their servcers for the start, though not good and clean as encryption.
Sanaz Ahari, The product management director overseeing Android gave this assurance pointing out that Google recognizes the need for private chat within RCS and is working on it. Here’s her full statement:
We fundamentally believe that communication, especially messaging, is highly personal and users have a right to privacy for their communications. And we’re fully committed to finding a solution for our users.
secondaly, the over 2billion android devices around the world which most are smartphones will be controlled by Google just as it is with Apple's iMessage. That is to say, Google will be controlling over 75 percent of the total global device communication.
NEXT: What is RCS and why is it important to Android
Watch the video below which explains how RCS works
