SMS is garbage, but here in the US, it's ubiquitous. Rich Communication Services messaging — RCS for short — is a fan favorite candidate to replace it. The hope is that, eventually, everybody will be able to text everybody else in a way that doesn't suck. Google and Samsung announced today that they're working together to that end, collaborating to make sure each company's RCS platform (and messaging app) plays nice with the other.

Way back in 2015, Google acquired RCS-centric Jibe Mobile and set to work on integrating the fancy new messaging standard into Android. Then, early last year, Samsung announced its own RCS platform. The two essentially operate on the same infrastructure, the RCS Universal Profile, but it's nice to know Samsung and Google are officially working together on broad adoption of the standard, rather than offering competing solutions. Samsung also points out that Android Messages and Samsung Messages will be able to send each other RCS messages.

RCS has plenty of benefits over SMS: it works over Wi-Fi; it supports sharing large files; and there can be read receipts. It allows for modern messaging conveniences (think something like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp) not constrained by '90s sensibilities. Now if only more carriers would support it.

Source: Samsung