Google Messages will soon get everyone to use RCS messaging
If you’re still living in SMS land, your RCS-enabled friends may soon be the messengers of guilt, urging you to get with the program.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) was intended to be the next generation of texting, a true upgrade to clunky SMS. But years later, most people still haven’t turned it on, and it’s not hard to see why. We’re swimming in messaging apps: WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram, Messenger. Texting barely registers as a priority anymore.
According to Google, over 1 billion RCS messages are sent each day in the U.S. alone, based on recent 28-day activity averages shared in the 2024 developer updates. But SMS is still very much alive. Americans alone send over 6 billion SMS and MMS messages per day, according to CTIA’s latest figures.
But Google’s not giving up. In fact, it’s getting a little aggressive.
If you haven’t adopted RCS yet, Google is preparing a clever way to get your friends and family to pressure you into it. In the latest beta of Google Messages, hidden code reveals a new feature: prompts that nag your contacts to turn on RCS.
Messages like: “Invite this contact to RCS chat”, “We can share high-quality media and send secure messages when we're both on RCS”
In other words, if you’re still living in SMS land, your RCS-enabled friends may soon be the messengers of guilt, urging you to get with the program.
Once the feature goes live, the app will detect whether the person you’re texting is using RCS—and if they’re not, it’ll give you a one-tap way to send a friendly (or not-so-friendly) reminder. Google isn’t just pitching RCS as better; it’s trying to make not using it feel like a problem.
The technical reasons are legit. RCS adds features like typing indicators, read receipts, high-res media sharing, proper group chats, and end-to-end encryption. But here’s the asterisk: it only works if everyone in the conversation has it turned on. Otherwise, it all falls back to sad old SMS.
Right now, RCS is an opt-in setting inside Google Messages. To enable it:
Tap your profile photo > Messages settings > RCS chats > Flip the switch.
These new prompts haven’t rolled out yet, but the fact that they’re in the code means they could go live any day now. It’s the latest move in Google’s push to make RCS standard, and maybe even get Apple to budge a little more too.
In the meantime, Google keeps improving RCS with things like animated effects, media controls, chat snoozing, and—soon—a fresh Material 3 look as part of Android 16.
Texting on Android is better than it’s ever been. But until the last holdouts give in, it looks like Google’s counting on using peer pressure to do the convincing.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
