Google's history with messaging is a long and winding road, but the company finally started making some more serious progress last year when it began rolling out RCS-powered chat features that didn't require carrier approval. Since then, Google has made RCS available worldwide through the Google Messages app. Now it looks like Samsung is starting to bring support for Google's chat features to its own Samsung Messages app.

As spotted on Reddit, a new prompt is showing up in Samsung Messages, the company's stock text messaging app. It lets users know that they can enable Chat features powered by Google's RCS backend in order to get faster, richer, and higher-quality conversations using Wi-Fi or mobile data. Once enabled, users will be able to send reactions, large video files, and more — all showing up in fancy blue bubbles instead of the traditional green.

A new prompt in Samsung Messages asks users to enable Google's RCS features.

Up until now, Samsung Messages has only supported RCS via carrier implementations; users on Galaxy devices had to install the Google Messages app to take advantage of cross-carrier RCS. This is a win for both companies, as Google is able to broaden support for RCS to more Android users while Samsung's flock won't have to switch away from their messaging app to get access to the upgrade.

Samsung has been collaborating with Google on adding support for RCS messaging since 2018, so this rollout is a long time in the making. And it's still not here for most users quite yet — it looks like distribution may be in its early stages right now. Neither company has officially commented on the appearance of Google's RCS implementation in Samsung's default messaging app, but perhaps they're waiting to make sure any final bugs are squashed before announcing a wider release.

Source: u/ChunkyLoverMark

Thanks: Nick