RCS (short for Rich Communication Services) is the next iteration of carrier text messaging technology, but it’s actually been around in one form or another since it was first proposed in 2007. The originally agreed-upon RCS standard, known as Universal Profile, included a number of enhancements over SMS messaging
Unfortunately, adoption of RCS by mobile carriers, developers, and phone manufacturers hasn’t really taken off due to the network and software updates required to implement it. Since RCS recently received an enthusiastic backing from Google — mighty arbiter of Android OS, a phone manufacturer, and a service provider itself — change is coming, but Google’s version of RCS differs a bit from Universal Profile.
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