Google RCS is available
Great news – Fizz now supports Google RCS (Rich Communication Services). You'll wonder how you ever lived without feature-rich messaging. All you need to do is download the Google Messages app.
RCS is a pretty big deal.
Think of Google RCS as a next generation texting platform for Android phones, with useful functionalities such as having conversations with multiple friends at a time.
To discover all the features, head this way.
Any questions?
Our Solution Hub is full of practical information, including a specific FAQ on RCS messaging.
The Fizz Team
Comments
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Thid is great news!
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Good news all new feature is always welcome :)
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Soon after this was announced yesterday my Google Pixel 3 phone was apparently sending double/triple texts or late texts to friends. I am not using the native Google Messages app for texting. Can this issue be related to this new feature launch?
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It is not related. RCS was in fact activated weeks ago. This is just a forum announcement.
You're the 3rd person I read about multiple copies of a given texts. There are troubleshooting tips for that but now I'm beginning to wonder if this was rather a alarger issue with carriers.
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Well done Fizz! Thank you for always improving. I think many people here will appreciate it :)
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Great News
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Unfortunately, Apple is holding onto its iMessage-only philosophy and slow to adopt RCS as fallback (instead will continue to fall back to SMS)
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It doesn't seem to work on my Pixel 2 :(
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Hope they'll enable it in Samsung Messages too.
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Thanks for the new features!
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Hi,
I would like to know what that new feature is good for.
Can you explained what is more pratical with this ?
Is it a free app for texting meaning no more need to pay for text msg ?
Thanks!
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The app is named Messages (such an imaginative name🙄) and is developed by Google and uses that a new protocol named RCS also developed by Google but with other GSM actors . That protocol is supposedly meant to replace the infamous text protocol commonly known as SMS. It has a very long roll out because it needs adoption from both users and service carriers (if the country allows it, not sure for Russia and China).
Features include security, video calling, rich messaging, group calling (unsecured tho), emojis, stickers, bells, whistles, bla bla. See this short video↗️. Things you already see in other much better and specialized apps IMHO. What I presume is that Google will also use your content to push adds to you ...before you submit your message at which point will be end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). Not sure I'd want that.
The thing is I doubt Apple will join that protocol. So it is not (yet? ever?) cross-platform like so many others (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signals, Threema, Element.io, ...)
As for paying...
Nothing is entirely free. You pay either way for any messaging service.
SMS is not free. You need an APP that uses the SMS option from your Fizz plan for 3$/month. It is an old (from the 2G era I think) and not a secured protocol. But hey it works, it's relatively cheap and most importantly does not require a data plan.
With any other messaging method you need an APP. And the APP will cost you data from your data plan (just like MMS) when not connected to WI-FI (which is paid through an Internet service). It is not clear what is the lowest unit of measure but I suspect 1MB per message for a simple "Hello" for instance. In other words, does it round-up the data usage, or is it exactly byte per byte? I wish I had that answer. So if you always borrow someone's WI-FI you could say that such APP are closest to be free than SMS (a big "IF", I admit).
There are also satellite radio waves (like in-reach and GPS), but it costs an arm to send a message :)
To me, RCS is a desperate attempt by Google to bring whoever is using a competitor's APP to their business realm by encapsulating this in a protocol that doesn't do much more. It will have an adoption wall named Apple and maybe some state actors.
Good articles on RCS messaging:
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It's working with beta version last year. Now it's official. Good job
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Great, subscribed!
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Question here:
How should an iPhone user to use that service?~~
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RCS messaging is available only with Android phones.
With iPhone, you have iMessage.
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As of now no IOS dont use google rcs. Like the name said its from google so android i dont know if IOS will support it one day or not.
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Tested it out, works great! Always missed imessage on ios, this is just as good
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great news
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