Like Google, Samsung is now also pushing Apple to adopt RCS
After a series of failures with messaging services, Google zeroed in on Rich Communication Services (RCS) in the Messages app. The company has been zealously promoting its latest messaging venture, and sometimes even gets too far by naming and shaming Apple for keeping Android users out of its blue bubble club. It now looks like Samsung is also joining Google in pushing Apple to bring RCS to iMessage, which should ideally bring some feature parity for Android users.
In regions like the US where iMessage has massive appeal, Android users often find themselves being singled out for their distinct green bubbles. More than the chat bubble’s color, this means that many features aren’t accessible, and, more importantly, the messages are exchanged over unsecured SMS/MMS protocols. Above all, it leaves Android users feeling left out, which is why Google wants Apple to adopt RCS for better cross-platform messaging, but its appeals have so far fallen on deaf ears.
Google has been running a full-blown #GetTheMessage campaign to convince Apple to fix the disparity. It even set up a dedicated webpage for the campaign that highlights the benefits of RCS and the serious shortcomings of chats between Android and iPhones. Moreover, Google never leaves a chance to publicly call out Apple at its events.
Now, Samsung is joining Google to send the message across more strongly with its own advertisement that blatantly shames Apple (via The Verge). A short video of a quick chat suggests that the blue and green bubbles want to be together — even everyone else wants that — but Apple is being a stubborn parent who is giving them a hard time. While the video content itself doesn’t name Apple, the video title and description call on the iPhone maker to help fix the issue.
Both Apple iMessage and RCS chats on the Google Messages app are end-to-end encrypted, but messages exchanged between iPhone and Android users still rely on the archaic technology used for SMS, which isn’t secure at all. Besides additional security, bringing the open RCS protocol to iMessage will allow a better messaging experience with features like the ability to share high-quality media.
Having said that, Google bringing up the subject at every chance it gets is becoming quite embarrassing — even more so now that Samsung is also getting involved. Apple isn’t likely to budge considering iMessage is one of its biggest ways of keeping people locked into its ecosystem, which it wouldn’t like to give up just because a rival is childishly poking fun at it every now and then.
If you’re using any of the top Android phones, you have not one but several options for messaging. While RCS in Google Messages remains popular in certain regions, a lot of users globally already rely on secure, cross-platform services like Signal and WhatsApp, while Telegram is another popular (albeit less secure) alternative.
Karandeep has been with Android Police as a freelance writer since 2019, covering reviews for India, buyer’s guides for the US, and handy tutorials for everyone. He cares more about the impact of technology on people’s everyday lives than the superfluous features companies keep adding each year, which is central to his reviews and product recommendations.
In his previous life, he worked with Android Headlines to cover everything Android. He also wrote and edited for a handful of publications in India during his writing journey, which started in 2014. Ever since his first Symbian phone that had the iconic Ovi store to download apps, he has stuck to Android phones and is currently using a OnePlus 11. In his free time, he’s usually busy clearing his ever-growing backlog of movies and TV shows or tracking down an eatery he hasn’t been to yet. Chats about food go to Twitter DM and everything tech to karandeep (at) androidpolice (dot) com.