Hello everyone and welcome to ZD Tech, ZDNet’s daily editorial podcast. My name is Guillaume Serriesand today I explain to you what RCS is, the new SMS advocated by Google.
It is a messaging protocol used every day by more than 500 million people. RCS, for Rich Communication System, is the modern version of the SMS standard. It’s supported by Google through its Android model operating system, but not by Apple’s Message app, which still supports SMS.
The popularity of RCS therefore comes from the fact that this protocol is activated by default in Google Messages.
The RCS relies on the data network and not on the cellular network
But the biggest difference between RCS and SMS is that RCS relies on the data network and not on the cellular network. And it is thanks to the data that the RCS embeds its rich communication system.
Rich, because it is possible, for example, to transfer messages and their content from one user to another. Rich too, because the visuals that pass through RCS are much less compressed than in SMS.
It is also the RCS protocol that allows you to know at what time your recipient opened your message or when it begins to respond to you. Yes, this already exists in instant messengers like Facebook Messenger or Skype.
So why does Apple refuse to integrate the RCS protocol into its products?
But facing the RCS stand above all Apple and its Messages application. Last January, Google also complained that Apple was slowing down the adoption of RCS with its Messages application.
“We are not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android,” Google said. “We’re asking Apple to support the RCS standard in Messages, just like they support the older SMS and MMS standards. »
So why does Apple refuse to integrate the RCS protocol into its products? Well, it looks like RCS is so good that it can entice younger users and their families to switch to the less expensive Android ecosystem. In any case, this was revealed by internal Apple documents made public in the context of a recent trial.
Apple, for its part, confines itself to saying that the RCS protocol is not secure enough to be worthy of integrating iPhones and iPads.
But it is not impossible that the regulators in the years to come will force, in the name of the interoperability of services, to bring the RCS protocol to all smartphones. To be continued.