Google is working on ‘Chat’ the new technology after SMS

Google has been struggling in the texting market for quite a while now, Apple has its iMessage app, Facebook has both Messenger and WhatsApp, and Google has a few apps for texting, but none of them is as successful as its competitors. From Hangouts to Allo and Android Messages, through Google Duo, Google has failed to deliver an app that will satisfy Android users. One of the first steps to solve the problem is to recognize that there’s a problem, and Google recognized the problem eventually, and instead of introducing a new app to compete with other apps in the market, Google is changing the rules of the game. In this article, we will be discussing Google’s new plan to implement new RCS technology with all major mobile carriers in the world, this technology will be the alternative for SMS.

Google has been working quietly with a lot of mobile carriers around the world, and successfully Google brought them together to agree on a new alternative of SMS based on a standard called “ Universal Profile for Rich Communication Services”, The Verge first reported this news last week. Since the launch of Android, people have been giving up on default messaging or SMS, and Google’s goal here is to make a better default Android messaging experience, to compete with other messaging apps.

So what is Chat?

Chat is not an app itself, instead, it’s like a new feature included in Android Messages, Chat is basically the consumer-friendly name of RCS (Rich Communication Services). Google involvement in Chat is just providing the app (Android Messages) on Android phones, that will support the service, the service itself is carrier-based service, although we should give Google the credit for bringing all the carrier companies, and some manufacturing companies together to agree on the new standard.

The new service will allow users to send full-resolution photos and videos, GIFs, and group texts, it will be just like any other texting app. As the default app for messaging on Android belongs to Google, so Google will be able to introduce all kind of new features into the app, from Google assistant to GIFs search and stickers in Google keyboard, through maybe the features of Google Duo to call others or video chat with them. Although Google might introduce all this features to the app, but whether all these features work on your phone or not is decided by your carrier company, because remember, it’s “Chat” not “Google Chat”, that means what you can or can’t do is all up to your carrier company.

So how does Chat work?

To use Chat, just open your Android Messages app and send a text to someone just like you do normally, the message would get to your carrier, and then it will be forwarded to the recipient’s carrier, if the recipient is using chat as well, then the message will be delivered as a Chat message, if the other person is not using Chat (the carrier doesn’t support it or the manufacturing company etc.) then your message will be delivered as a normal SMS message.

When Chat will be available?

According to The Verge report, Google said the new feature will be available soon, but again it’s all up to the carriers. Google said that it’s optimistic that a lot of carriers will launch the feature in the next few months, and other carriers will be late until mid next year. Google has been contacting a lot of mobile carriers and it got 55 network operators ( shown in the picture), 11 OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer), and the service will be working on operating systems provided by Google and Microsoft, that means Android of course, and Windows phone or any new OS by Microsoft.

One big thing that we should all remember, Google here is not providing an equivalent of iMessages on iPhone, that means the messages sent via Chat are not fully encrypted, and the carriers have control over them, and to be clear here, carriers don’t have that good history when it comes to government asking for users data and spying on them in some countries.

One last thing, Google is already working on a web version for Android Messages, and it will roll it out soon (probably in the I/O conference), that means that users will be able to continue texting via Chat on their web browsers, the new version on web will be just like supported by a QR code, you scan it on your smartphone and start texting.

We still don’t know whether Google will announce the new Chat service during the upcoming I/O developers conference on May 8th-10th. This year we’re waiting for a lot of big announcements from Google.  

In this Video the whole Chat service is explained by The Verge:   

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