You may have heard about RCS and how it is a massive upgrade over SMS, the old standard for text messaging. But how do you know if you can actually use RCS? We show you how to check easily.
In short, RCS (Rich Communication Service) is the future of text messaging. It offers many features that you probably used in instant messaging apps, such as read receipts, typing indicators, and high-quality images, for basic texting.
RELATED: What is RCS, the successor to SMS?
The rollout of RCS to phones has been long and messy. For starters, iPhones don̵
So to get RCS, you have to use Android device. In addition, you must have set the Google Messages app as your default text messaging app. Third-party SMS apps cannot use RCS.
With all of the above in mind, it is very easy to see if your Android device has RCS support. First, open the Google Messages app and tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner.
Then select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.
If you see a section entitled “Chat Features” at the top of the Settings menu, you have RCS. “Chat” is the term Google uses for RCS functions.
In the “Chat Features” settings you can enable or disable various RCS features or disable them altogether.
That’s all there is to it. If your device doesn’t have RCS support yet, you will likely see a pop-up message in the Messages app where you can enable it.
