T-mobile users, your text messaging prowess is about to get more rich — in the sense of Rich Communication Services, that is.
T-Mobile customers have mentioned on Reddit and Google Plus that they're seeing the RCS option pop up in the settings panel on the Messenger for Google app. But it's been difficult to parse whether RCS is ready on the network given the lack of confirmation that it's life. Other subscribers have suggested that with Digits in beta, the functionality is inevitable.
RCS as often been poised at the "SMS Killer," and that's partially true. The standard will essentially infuse your plain old text messaging app with the same powers as Apple's iMessage. Here's how my colleague, Jerry Hildenbrand, explained it:
Combined with FaceTime, iMessage already offers exactly the things RCS is trying to achieve. Voice and video calls are simple and messages are rich with great media sharing and read receipts and typing indicators and everything else. And it uses SMS in tandem with regular data to do it. It's the best SMS app you'll ever use until RCS becomes ubiquitous (if it ever does.)
Spring, T-Mobile, and AT&T were the three carriers who had initially signed on to the standard last year. But at present, only Sprint and Canada's Rogers has signed on. If T-Mobile is indeed ready to adopt, it'll be great news for RCS for the rest of us.
