Google still tackles Apple, which does not offer RCS

Google hosted today his I/O conference and made numerous announcements… and took the opportunity to tackle Apple regarding the RCS. This is the successor to SMS which is intended to be more complete, but Apple does not support it.

New Google attack against Apple and the RCS

Google already offers RCS support on Android. This offers several advantages over SMS and is actually similar to iMessage. There are acknowledgments, encryption of conversations, sending of images and videos in good quality, better managed group conversations, the possibility of conversing from a Wi-Fi connection and more.

“We hope that all mobile operating systems will understand the message and switch to RCS, so that your messages remain private, regardless of the device you use”, said a Google executive at the I/O conference. We guess quite easily that it refers to Apple and more exactly to iOS, although neither is cited. Google takes the opportunity to announce that there are 500 million monthly users for RCS on Android.

First tackle at the start of the year

Last January, Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of Android at Google, posted a series of tweets aimed at Apple. He said he wanted Apple to support RCS on iPhone and not iMessage on Android. Technically, Apple could replace the support of the SMS by that of the RCS, but the manufacturer does not seem leaving for the moment. Will there be a surprise with iOS 16? Response to the WWDC keynote on June 6.

Here are the various announcements from Google today: