Though instant messaging services have had much innovation, SMS has been left behind over the last little while.
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The messaging startup describes itself as a “cloud communications company for mobile operators, handset manufacturers, and other communication networks” that “provides an open end-to-end technology platform enabling carriers to rapidly launch and commercially scale the most innovative IP communication services to mobile consumers globally”. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major glob…
Other standard RCS features enable screen sharing between devices, location sharing, and the ability to show contact presence.
Google has acquired Jibe Mobile, a provider of RCS services for telecom carriers.
The Google Android team is “already working closely” with many of its partners to implement RCS, so buying Jibe isn’t an out-of-the-blue purchase.
“We’re very excited to announce that the Jibe Mobile team is joining Google to help us bring RCS to a global audience”, Google said in a statement to Re/code.
A few carriers later introduced RCS under their own brand name; most recently was T-Mobile with its Advanced Messaging features.
“Deploying RCS to create an even better messaging experience on Android will take time and collaboration throughout the wireless industry, but we’re excited to get started” wrote Mike Dodd, Android RCS Software Engineer and Minister of Messaging. The Mountain View, California-based company supported the Rich Communications Service (RCS), a sophisticated data transfer system that could succeed short message service (SMS) and is backed by the GSM association, which represents the interests of about 800 mobile operators around the world. We can’t wait to work with them and build on the great work that they’ve already done.
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Compared to messaging services like iMessage, Hangouts, BBM, WhatsApp, and others, text messaging is pretty lacking, missing features like real-time chat and high-res photos. We promise to stay true to our roots, and keep building great products for our customers.
