Mobile Phone Technology

SMS is the most basic mobile messaging system. Although there have been enhancements, such as the ability to send long messages (over 160 characters) and MMS messages with audio or image attachments, as well as delivery receipts, SMS is still considered an outdated technology. While it is useful for simple text messaging, it is not as effective as commercial messaging systems such as iMessage, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a modern messaging protocol available to all phone manufacturers and networks. Within the phone messaging app, RCS tends to be labelled 'chat' and allows for messaging with a variety of file types for video, images and audio. It also allows for group chats, as well as video and audio calls.

How do I get RCS messaging in the UK? The good news is that all three mobile carriers support RCS; the bad news is that RCS is not yet fully supported on Apple phones. Apple has iMessage, which is a messaging system for Apple phones only and has similar features to RCS. For messaging between Apple and Android phones, many people use WhatsApp or a similar app. However, these are controlled by a single commercial organisation — Facebook, in the case of WhatsApp. Also, all parties need to be on WhatsApp, whereas the RCS protocol does not define a specific app.

The RCS protocol allows text messages to be sent one-to-one or to groups of people. Additionally, picture messages, videos, and many other file types are supported. Live chat with typing indicators is available, as are audio and video calls. There are also many other features similar to those available on iMessage or WhatsApp. The good news is that RCS is backwards compatible, so if a participant in the chat does not have an RCS messaging system, RCS will fall back and send the message as an SMS or MMS, as appropriate. RCS works between different RCS apps over any carrier that supports RCS.

Another important part of RCS is Business RCS, which enables businesses to interact with customers in a process known as B2C communication. Businesses can use this to deliver electronic artefacts such as tickets and item delivery notifications, or indeed any other electronic notification.

Although RCS has been slow to grow, it is set to take off with the backing of Google and the UK's carriers. But is it secure? It does not support end-to-end encryption, but it does retain the same legal intercept standards as SMS.

Even with RCS available, simple SMS messages still have a place.

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