Google is working on a last-ditch effort to solve a problem it has been dealing with for years: to offer a single and clear way to exchange messages via Android. The idea is to do it with a radical and very ambitious approach: to kill SMS as we know them today and replace them with a new “standard” called RCS, available for a decade and essentially left to itself. In a certain sense, Google will give up having its own app such as iMessage on iOS (Apple) or Facebook Messenger, delegating much of the management of message exchanges on Android to telephone operators. The system will simply be called “Chat” and will likely lead to the end of other experiments recently attempted by Google, including the Allo messaging app on which he had high hopes. The novelty was told in a long article by Dieter Bohn of The Verge, who got exclusive information from Google and had the opportunity to see a first version of the new system.
Formally Chat is not a new application, but a different way to make “Messages”, the default Android app, work. It is based on Rich Communications Services (RCS), a system proposed for the first time in 2007 to update the SMS system, giving the possibility to have messages without the limit of 160 characters and richer in multimedia content, avoiding MMS, which never have caught on a lot (especially due to the high costs required by the operators for their use).
While users won't notice many differences, at least initially, Chat is a very important change for the telephony market: the service is not under the control of Google, but of the telephone operators. The introduction of the new system will therefore not take place at the same time for all owners of an Android smartphone: the transition will depend on the times and methods chosen by the individual operators. However, Google will try to coordinate the initiative as much as possible and, according to several observers, it has embarked on a difficult and unexpected adventure.
Google has succeeded in the effort to bring together 50 of the largest mobile phone operators in the world and a dozen smartphone manufacturers, who as known are competing rather fiercely to prevail in a very competitive market. They all agreed on adopting the new standard, but it is difficult to predict what their actual commitment will be. Judging by the failures of recent years, Google still didn't have many alternatives.
The history of Google's messaging apps is littered with major commercial launches and scorching failures. In 2005, Google Talk was welcomed because it offered an easy way to chat online, using your Google account. Things got more complicated three years later when Android arrived and the company thought about offering Google Talk on smartphones, in addition to SMS service. It was then that a problem that had remained unsolved for nearly ten years began to become evident: multiple messaging apps produced by the same company, Google, and a source of constant confusion among users, because they basically did the same things, but in different ways.
In 2011, Google further complicated matters with the launch of Google+, its failing social network. It had a chat system and one for video conferencing via the new Hangouts app. Two years later, Google tried to put things in order by launching Google+ Hangouts, an app that combined other previous systems for exchanging messages. Then in 2016 he tried again to relaunch his chat services, also given the competition from iMessage on iOS, WhatsApp and other messaging applications on Android. He first introduced Messenger on Android for SMS only, marking the partial end of Hangouts, and later announced two new apps: Allo for texting and Duo for video calling. The former has never been very successful while the latter has had some more positive results, especially since it made it possible to start video calls very easily not only between Android phones, but also between Android and iOS.
Google seems to have finally become aware of the numerous failures six months ago, when it commissioned Anil Sabharwal to try to solve the problem once and for all. Sabharwal has been working for Google for several years and is considered the main architect of the success of Google Photos, a service for keeping your photos online, searching and consulting them easily and sharing them with your friends. At The Verge, Sabharwal said he went to work trying to analyze the existing on Android. He realized that the Messages app, the default one for SMS on most smartphones (Samsung uses its own), has about 100 million active users every month. This is because it is not always possible to communicate with someone via WhatsApp or Messenger, and when this happens, users switch back to SMS. According to Sabharwal, approximately 8 trillion text messages are sent every year around the world.
Eventually Sabharwal was persuaded that it was time to stop trying to make new messaging apps: “There are a lot of great messaging products out there. Just because Google would like to be a part of it isn't a reason to invest or build products. We create products because we think we can offer better user experiences “.
In reality, the decision was influenced by the fact that at this point, Google no longer had many alternatives. If she had tried to copy iMessage she would have gotten into trouble, because Android is not designed like iOS to run on just one type of smartphone and tablet, under the control of only one company. Android is used by dozens of different manufacturers, who customize it and install it on their smartphones, often involving telephone operators who in turn add additional features. Making all manufacturers and operators digest a single SMS and messaging app would have been unthinkable and probably would have led to some reprisals, damaging the commercial opportunities that Google obtains by offering its services on Android, through the mechanism of data collection and advertising. Google could probably have done this if it had had a hugely successful messaging app for a few years, but the story turned out differently.
The only real thing in common between all the manufacturers and operators who adopt Android, with different versions and customizations, was the SMS standard: Google started from there to try to change things. Although stopped for ten years and without great opportunities for a bright future, RCS seemed the most suitable evolution. Without giving too much attention, for a couple of years Google has been working on “Universal Profile”, a project that involved operators to push them to use shared systems and standards to ensure the correct functioning of RCS. With the arrival of some large telephony companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, other operators have joined, enticed by the prospect of maintaining control over messages and not being left out as happened with WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Messenger and others. messaging apps that leverage data plans.
To date, the commercial approach that each telephone company will decide to follow remains unpredictable. Google expects that Chat will not be charged as for SMS, but that a data packet-based mode similar to WhatsApp will be preferred. However, it is an auspice, not a binding condition, and is completely out of Google's control. Operators could decide to follow different paths, applying specific rates or combining the service with other commercial offers. Users would always have the option not to use RCS and take refuge in WhatsApp, but this would mark a failure of the initiative supported by Google.
RCS also has another non-negligible problem: as with traditional SMS, it does not offer great protections on data protection. Operators may have access to the content of the messages and may be forced to disseminate them to the authorities, in the case of investigations, or to those involved in censorship in countries with undemocratic governments. In this sense, RCS offers fewer guarantees than WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage itself (iMessage has the same problem only when the recipient does not have an iPhone and therefore receives an SMS instead of an encrypted message transmitted via Apple's servers, which cannot access their content, even if he wanted to). Apple does not seem to be interested in the news for now, so a message via Chat to iPhone would be delivered as a normal text message, as is already the case between Android Messages and iMessage.
It is not clear when the transition to Chat for everyone will take place and there will probably be some unexpected events, considering that every operator and smartphone manufacturer will have some autonomy over the times. However, Google trusts to coordinate the introduction of the novelty and to have all the main companies involved within a year, starting with Samsung, the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. If all goes smoothly, hundreds of millions of people around the world will be able to message each other more easily, with a universal system that involves most smartphone owners.
