Google has been trying to create its own messaging platform to stand up to WhatsApp. Without success.
He tried with Hangouts, with Alloeven with Google+. All these projects ended as Stadia, Chrome apps o Android Things: closed and forgotten.
Meanwhile…
- Apple has consolidated Issssage as its native channel in some markets, especially in the United States.
- And goal has made WhatsApp the default tool to talk to anyone in the middle of the planet.
Google, despite controlling More than 70% From the mobile market with Android, it did not have a direct route with its users. And that is starting to change thanks to RCS.
RCS is a technical standard, not an application, designed in theory to replace the SMS and offer a more modern messaging on smartphones. Let send images and videos, have reading confirmations, creating group chats … but its reach goes beyond the interface: It is the first relevant messaging channel in the Android ecosystem that does not depend on an external app like WhatsApp or Telegram.
The key is how Google has managed to position it. It has not launched a new application. Has integrated RCS directly on Google Messagesthe native messages on Android. In the United States, the deployment is almost total: more than one billion RCS messages are sent every day, according to figures announced by Google. “Only” are three messages per inhabitant and day, but something is.
Google controls its infrastructure, its APIs and its evolution. And he has done it without asking the user to download anything, nor that he believes a new account. It is there. Works. And more and more people use it, often without knowing it, because they believe they continue using the SMS. But not anymore: it is a RCS controlled by Google.
That final nuance is key. Because although RCS is presented as an open standard, what is growing is not a decentralized network, but an RCS with an accent of Mountain View.
Google has not only promoted its deployment: it has assumed its technical control in many countries, jumping to the operators. Since in 2019 he decided to offer it directly – without waiting for telecos—RCS has gone from forgotten promise to functional channel.
And now, Apple. Another silent victory: Apple has been forced to incorporate it for European regulatory pressure. That does not make Imessage interoperable, but it has eliminated the largest brake that was to the global deployment of the new standard.
From there, the old SMS – with its limits and compression – has ceased to be the default language between Android and iOS. It is RCS. A more modern channel, encrypted … and with owner.
And that is the real change. Google has not created its WhatsApp. He has done something more subtle: He has reconverted Android’s native messaging on his own platform.
Without calling it that way.
Without asking you permission.
Without seeming it.
In Xataka | Gemini should not be called Gemini. It should be called Google
Outstanding image | Google, Xataka
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