I can’t wait for Google Messages to get these 3 important new RCS features

It has taken RCS a long time to unify the messaging experience between Android devices first, then between them and between iOS. But we’re almost there. Despite the green bubbles, sharing messages between different phones and platforms is now a much more consistent and reliable experience without the need to use third-party apps like Telegram, WhatsApp or Signal.

And the impact of Google Messages has been tremendous in getting RCS properly adopted. I notice this a lot, even in France, where WhatsApp is almost omnipresent. When I communicate with my friends or family, it is WhatsApp; but when Samsung repair service wants me to send them photos of my broken TV, it’s through Google Messages. However, there is still room to improve that experience, and the just announced RCS 4.0 promises to close the gap even further and make Google Messages a more powerful messaging experience.

Video calling support is one of the cornerstones of the latest RCS 4.0 standard. With it, applications that adopt the specification will not only be able to initiate chats between devices and platforms and share media, but they will also be able to initiate and manage video calls. Instead of Messages acting as a texting app that initiates video calls in Meet or Video over LTE, it could become the video calling app on its own, with native, built-in support. And when Apple adopts that, it should ideally mean no more FaceTime-this and Meet-that. I could just start a call with the person I’m talking to, regardless of the platform, and not wonder if they have the right phone or app to take it.

Going back to my broken TV, when I was on a call with the Samsung repair center, they had to share with me a link via Messages that opened Chrome to start a web-based video call and show them what was wrong with my TV. It required a lot of permissions, didn’t work at first even though I knew what I was doing, and the support agent kept asking me to restart it to get streaming to work. When Google Messages adopts RCS 4.0, this type of solution could and should be removed. Companies would have the option to make native video calls, without resorting to bad third-party services.

Outside the US, we may not be able to make such video calls with our immediate friends in Google Messages, but for random and necessary calls to businesses, support and repair services, and the like, this promises to become the default. In the United States, the promise is even greater: Families and friends no longer need to be part of a platform to talk to each other.

There’s no word yet on encryption during these calls, but we know they’ll include some cool features. Users can “join late” to a group video call if they miss the initial invitation; call logs are located within the messaging application; and the devices automatically identify the correct codec to ensure both devices have the highest quality calls possible.

Moving from MMS to RCS has greatly reduced the occurrence of low-quality image and video sharing across devices and platforms, but there is still room for things to improve. Nowadays, in my experience, Google’s Messages to Messages shares handle that very well, but there are still cases of blurry videos and squashed photos in large groups, especially when people use different mobile operating systems.

With RCS 4.0, things should improve even more. The two devices in a chat will perform a “handshake” before sending a file to identify exactly which codecs both phones support. So instead of the sending phone guessing or settling for a low-quality, secure format, it will choose the optimal encoding for the recipient. Technically speaking, this promises that Google Messages will be able to send the most optimized high-bitrate photos and videos to other Messages users and iPhones without any compression along the way.

Audio messages will also benefit from a standardized roadmap and codec. A Google Messages voice memo should sound as clear in iMessage as it would to another Messages user.

When I was reading this, I couldn’t believe that the RCS universal standard still didn’t support rich text formatting. I’m so used to WhatsApp formatting my messages that I never wondered if Google Messages could do it too. I assumed so. But not. I can’t bold or italicize words this way, nor can I long-press a word to apply formatting. That’s nonsense. All messaging and communication apps support this format, from Slack to WhatsApp, Discord, Asana and more, so it’s about time Google Messages supported it too.

With RCS 4.0, that should be the case. Better yet, if you use some format to send your message and resort to SMS, the recipient won’t receive a bunch of random ** and __ characters; They will receive the original text without rich text formatting, so the message is still readable and doesn’t look too spammy.

This should also close the format gap with iMessage when Apple adopts RCS 4.0. Right now, Apple has a ton of text effects in iMessage, but none of them carry over to Google Messages. If you’re talking to a friend on an iPhone and they send you a burst or shaky text, you’ll see a gibberish format code along with their message. That won’t change, but rich text support should at least standardize basic formatting styles between the two platforms so we can all cross out expected typos in peace.

RCS 4.0 is a little more than these three features, especially for business partners and their messages, but that part will have little impact on daily communication through Google Messages. The above three features will be much more important for everyday users, and the only thing we can hope for is that both Google and Apple implement the standard as soon as possible.