If you're using the Pixel 6 or another smartphone running "native Android, you might notice that just in the last few days, the Messages app that comes with your phone has received a version update.
What is the content of this update? Quite simply, it mainly contains two major functional changes. First, it can now now normally display the emoji memes contained in text messages sent by the iPhone. Before that, the vast majority of Android models could not display emoji information from the iPhone, but only saw a "box box" that represented the text displaying the error.
The iPhone's emoji used to be displayed like this on Android machines
The second is that after this update, when you try to send photos to an iPhone user in the form of text messages, Android's native SMS app will automatically upload the photos to the network disk and send the network disk link to the other party. Instead of compressing pictures so that no one can recognize them, as they used to be, and sending them using the old MMS standard.
Yes, at first glance, Google's update to the native Android SMS app seems to be aimed at "taking care" of iPhone users. However, behind such a move, it actually reflects a complete failure of the Internet giant that is not well known.
Because it actively "adapts" to the Apple-led emoji standard in its own SMS application and provides additional care for iPhone users in terms of image acceptance, it means that Google's "RCS lobbying" for Apple from 2021 is actually a failure.
What is RCS? Note that it's not actually Google's proprietary technology, but a next-generation mobile messaging technology developed by the GSMA (Global Association of Systems for Mobile Communications) since 2008. To put it more bluntly, you can actually understand it as "the next generation of SMS technology".
What are the benefits of RCS? To put it simply, it feels like the weChat you are familiar with. Compared with traditional sms, RCS can send high-definition pictures, high-definition emojis, conduct voice and even video chat, and even provide an interactive interface similar to a "small program" in the form of cards.
However, unlike WeChat, the "account" system of RCS is directly bound to the mobile phone number. So in theory, as long as you know the other person's mobile phone number, you will not need to "add friends" to communicate. Not only that, but for merchants to deliver marketing content through RCS, it is naturally simpler than through WeChat.
Because of this, as early as 2015, Google began to promote the popularity of the RCS standard in the Android camp. And so far, in fact, in theory, all mainstream Android models (including products in the domestic market) are actually compatible with the RCS standard, but the switch of related functions may not be enabled.
Of course, it's not hard to understand why Apple has been rejecting RCS. After all, they already have their own iMessage service, which is also deeply tied to text messages and mobile phone numbers. And whether it is in terms of function, interface, or use mode, iMessage has "collided" with RCS. Therefore, the acceptance of the RCS standard for Apple is actually equivalent to "self-destruction martial arts", so it is no wonder that they have been very indifferent in the face of Google's continuous appeal.
So, Google wants to popularize the "big dream" of RCS throughout the mobile phone industry, can't it be realized? In fact, they may have one last hope, that is, our mobile operators in China.
You know, domestic mobile operators made a "big invention" last year, that is, the international standard, and essentially has nothing to do with 5G RCS, turned into "5G information". Not only that, according to the test results of netizens at the end of last year, in order to make the "5G message" worthy of the name, the domestic operator actually restricted only 5G mobile phones to send and receive RCS information normally at the technical level, and 4G mobile phones to send and receive RCS messages will automatically be converted into SMS or MMS messages.
This is very interesting, because this result shows that operators are directly binding RCS technology to "promoting 5G mobile phones". It is not difficult to look back at history and realize that it is entirely possible that they will "support RCS" as a hard standard for operators to purchase or subsidize channels in the future.
In this way, in the face of real money and silver, even Apple can hardly guarantee "sitting in the air". Therefore, for Google, perhaps "mysterious forces from the East" will become the "savior" of their will.
【The picture of this article comes from the network】