To make the use of the RCS standard much more explicit in Google Messages, Google is working on adding a colored badge that you won’t be able to miss. It will let you know at a glance which conversations are eligible.
Google wants to make the use of RCS, the spiritual son of SMS, much more visible in its Google Messages application. We learn this week from 9to5Google, that the firm is about to deploy a new badge allowing you to know instantly whether or not a conversation is eligible for this standard.
Added to the Google Messages home screen, this new feature comes in the form of a small colored bubble, located right next to the contact photo of your correspondents who have a smartphone compatible with the RCS. This icon is visible both on individual conversations (at least if applicable), and on eligible group conversations. It is also based on the system Dynamic Color to automatically adopt a consistent color with your interface.
This is reminiscent of iMessage on the iPhone, which colors its bubbles blue if you’re chatting with an iPhone, or green if the person on the other end of the line has an Android. A practice that has led to the harassment of some children excluded from discussions for the color of their bubble.
A feature to know very quickly what to expect
Before the arrival of this new feature, seeing if a conversation was eligible for RCS was less easy. This required opening the conversation in question and observing whether the text field indicated ” RCS message ” or simply “text message“. A manipulation that could soon be over.
As for Google, we feel that it is increasingly trying to align its Messages application with the RCS standard… which allows it to offer a richer experience. The thing is done visually (the colored logo supposed to represent the RCS conversations takes up the lines of the Google Messages logo), but also in terms of functionality, since the new functionMagic Composeadopted by Google Messages is for example only compatible with RCS messages.
Note, however, that these newRCS badgesare not yet deployed on a large scale. For now, it looks like Google is just testing this feature through the latest Google Messages beta (20230615_02_RC00). It can be very practical for people who travel a lot to avoid an extra package linked to the use of an MMS for example.
Given its usefulness, we are confident that this novelty will eventually be adopted, but nothing has been confirmed yet… and it is not known when Google could roll it out to all users.
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