To celebrate 1 billion RCS users, Google Messages gains additional capabilities
More than one billion people are actively using Google Messages with RCS enabled, marking a significant milestone in Google’s mission to replace the antiquated SMS and MMS protocols as the global standard for communications.
RCS has seen significant support from Google over the past ten years. On Android devices, RCS allows native SMS and MMS apps to share high-quality media files and provide end-to-end encryption. Because RCS is integrated within the app, it may rely on these conventional methods in the event of an internet outage.
These latest features of Google Messenger are making the conversations more vibrant
Although RCS is pretty similar to Apple’s iMessage, its in-house protocol is being used by Apple, which makes it incompatible with RCS as well as with Android devices. Google, meanwhile, has embraced Apple’s recent capitulation and revealed that it will be bringing RCS compatibility to iPhones in the upcoming year.
The internet behemoth is also adding seven new features to the Google Messages app, which is the default messaging app on a lot of Android devices, including those made by Samsung after 2020, in honor of reaching the milestone of one billion RCS users.
These seven new features, according to Google, are intended to “help your personality shine through.” Among the features are Photomoji, which lets you add reactions to your images, and Reaction Effects, which are animated versions of classic reactions like the thumbs-up sign provided by Google. Emojis delivered as messages in a chat will likewise come to life when sent using Google Messages.
Next are the screen effects, which, upon detecting certain phrases in the chat, animate the entire screen, including “I love you.” Additionally, users can choose the color of the message bubble and the background of each discussion. The Profiles feature allows users to customize the name and photo that appear next to their phone number on their profile.
Google is launching Voice Moods, a voice messaging feature that enables users to record and share messages with an emoji that appears next to the message so the recipient can “hear your words along with a visual effect that expresses how you’re feeling at that moment.” A higher bitrate and sampling rate have also improved the audio quality of voice messages.
Users in the Google Messages beta program can begin testing the features now
Users of the beta version of Google Messages can now access all of these capabilities. You can sign up to be a beta tester by clicking this link and following the instructions if you want to test the features before Google releases them globally on the non-beta app. However, Google has not stated when these features will be made available to users.
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