RCS

RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. It is a technology that allows phones to exchange messages. It is meant to replace the old SMS, the simple text message that has existed since the 1990s. An SMS can only carry around 160 characters of text, nothing more. With RCS, on the other hand, you can send photos in full quality, videos, voice messages, and group chats. You can also see whether the other person has read the message or is currently typing. The difference to apps like WhatsApp: RCS runs in the messaging app that is already installed on the phone anyway.

The battle for the pre-installed messaging app

For years, SMS remained technically stuck in place. Anyone who wanted to share photos or chat in groups switched to WhatsApp, Telegram, or Apple's iMessage service. In doing so, mobile carriers lost an important part of their business to individual software companies. RCS is an attempt to bring these features back into the open phone standard.

This became especially visible in the dispute between Apple and Google. Messages between iPhones have always run over iMessage and appeared blue. Messages from Android phones, however, landed as plain SMS in the green bubble, with poor-quality images and no read receipts. In the US, this color became a social status symbol among teenagers. The EU Commission also took an interest in the question of whether Apple was unfairly locking itself off with this.

In 2024, Apple therefore gave in and enabled RCS on the iPhone. Since then, images and read receipts also work between iPhone and Android. For users, this means: less frustration, no matter which device the other person has.

From the cell tower to the internet

An SMS is transmitted over the mobile network itself, more precisely over a narrow signaling channel that was actually intended for control data. That’s why it is so tightly limited. RCS takes a different approach and simply uses the phone’s internet connection, meaning mobile data or Wi-Fi. This means the same technical possibilities apply as with any chat app.

The messages run via servers. These are either operated by the mobile carrier or, very often in practice, by Google. The company provides the infrastructure for many carriers worldwide through its Jibe service. This is exactly one point of criticism: a standard that is supposed to be open depends on a single large provider.

A common misconception concerns encryption. RCS was not originally end-to-end encrypted, meaning it could be intercepted along the way. Google retrofitted this encryption into its own app. Only since 2025 has it been an official part of the standard and thus intended for all providers. If the connection is missing or the other party doesn’t support RCS, the message automatically falls back to SMS.

Package notifications, banks, and advertising

In everyday life, you often don’t even consciously notice RCS. On Android phones, it has long been active in the Google Messages app, and on the iPhone in the standard Messages app. A note like “RCS chat” in the input field shows that the better technology is currently being used.

Economically, RCS is particularly interesting for businesses. Parcel services, airlines, and banks can use it to send messages with a logo, a verified sender name, and buttons. Instead of a bare link, a button like “Track shipment” appears. This is also meant to make fraud attempts harder, since a verified sender is more difficult to fake than an SMS number.

In business news, RCS therefore usually appears in two contexts: as a tool for corporate communication generating billions in revenue, and as a point of contention between Apple, Google, mobile carriers, and regulatory authorities.