Is It Time for Apple To Embrace RCS?

Google’s vision for the future of messaging hinges on the iPhone, but will the universal solution triumph over a longstanding competitive advantage?

This week there was an article in The Wall Street Journal that made waves throughout Twitter and caused some debate. This was not some sort of exposé of a company doing anything illegal, but rather about text messaging and communication. The article focused on something many in tech circles call “green bubble syndrome” or when iPhone users are subjected to messaging non-iPhone users and the text message bubbles are green. The piece talked about the peer pressure element of locking in young smartphone users (ages 18–24) to rely on iMessage and how anyone that chooses to use Android is a social outcast.

There are some quotes from Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s Senior Vice President of Android, that suggest that Apple should change its policy on messaging protocols that it supports. He went on to elaborate on this in this Twitter thread. In short, Google is attempting to make RCS (Rich Communication Services) a replacement for SMS messages. The sticking point to making this a reality is that Apple has not added support for it on the iPhone, which is problematic in the U.S., as 60% of people currently use an iPhone. There have been calls for Apple to support RCS but also equal rebuttal that Apple should not give up…