To make Google Messages’ use of the RCS standard much clearer, Google is working on adding a colored badge that you can’t miss. This allows you to see at a glance which calls are possible.
Google Messages should soon tell you more clearly whether you’re using SMS or RCS
Google wants to make the use of RCS, the spiritual son of SMS, much more visible in its Google Messages application. This week, we learn from 9to5Google that the company is about to introduce a new badge that will let you instantly see if a conversation qualifies for that standard or not.
This new feature has been added to the Google Messages home screen and appears in the form of a small colored bubble located right next to the contact photo of your correspondents who have a smartphone compatible with the RCS. This icon is visible on both individual conversations (at least if applicable) and eligible group conversations. It also relies on the Dynamic Color system to automatically assume a color that matches your user interface.
This is reminiscent of iMessage on the iPhone, whose bubbles are colored blue if you’re chatting on an iPhone, or green if the person on the other end of the line has an Android device. A practice that has led to some children being excluded from discussions because of the color of their bladders.
A feature that lets you know very quickly what to expect
Prior to the introduction of this new feature, it was less easy to determine if a conversation was eligible for RCS. This required opening the conversation in question and observing whether the text field displayed “RCS Message” or simply “Text Message”. A manipulation that could soon come to an end.
We think Google is increasingly trying to adapt its Messages application to the RCS standard to provide a richer experience. This is done visually (the colored logo intended to represent the RCS conversations picks up on the lines of the Google Messages logo), but also functionally, since the new Magic Compose function inherited from Google Messages, for example, is only compatible with the RCS News.
Note, however, that these new “RCS badges” are not yet in widespread use. At the moment it looks like Google is testing this feature with the latest beta version of Google Messages (20230615_02_RC00). For people who travel a lot, it can be very convenient to avoid an additional package that comes with using an MMS, for example.
Given its usefulness, we’re confident that this novelty will eventually be adopted, but nothing has been confirmed yet… and it’s unknown when Google might make it available to all users.
Would you like to join a community of enthusiasts? Our Discord welcomes you, it’s a place of mutual help and passion for technology.