Google Messages could soon let you send higher-quality images over RCS

Date:
Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:01:24 +0000

Description:
Google Messages heavily compresses images sent over RCS, but it might soon stop doing so.

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Google has been championing RCS (Rich Communication Services) for a long
time, but the company hasnt actually been making the most of this SMS alternative.

RCS which is supported by Google Messages is a more modern alternative to SMS, allowing users to send high-quality images, videos, and GIFS, along with various other file types. It also allows for read receipts, typing
indicators, and end-to-end encryption. You can think of it as functionally being similar to iMessage or WhatsApp, except that it works across standard messaging apps.

Thats all great, but despite RCS technically supporting all these things, the current implementation in Google Messages wont actually send high-quality images it will heavily compress them instead.

That could be changing though, as in a teardown of the latest version of Google Messages, Android Authority has found code strings that suggest youll soon be able to send images measuring up to 8,192 pixels tall or wide. Thats still a restriction then, but its a lot less limiting than the current version, which seems to top out at 2,400 pixels. Never necessary An RCS conversation on an iPhone (Image credit: Apple)

Its odd that such a restrictive resolution was ever in place, as its not a requirement of RCS Samsung Messages, for example, also uses RCS and has no such restrictions.

Google may have decided to make this change now because Apple is finally bringing RCS support to the iPhone with iOS 18 , and also doesnt appear to be compressing images (based on the implementation in iOS 18 betas).

That means that currently iPhone users with access to RCS in the iOS 18 beta can send their Android friends uncompressed images, but anyone using Google Messages wont be able to send uncompressed images in return.

So its not a good look for Google that Apples day-one implementation of RCS
is superior, especially after Google has spent years calling for Apple to support RCS.

Whether or not this is the reason for the rumored change to a 8,192-pixel limit, this will undoubtedly be good news for users. It remains to be seen
how soon this change will roll out though assuming it does at all. You might also like RCS on iPhone has expanded its reach to more countries with iOS 18 beta 3 What is RCS messaging? The iMessage rival explained WhatsApp alternatives: the best messaging apps for Android and iPhone



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/google-messages-could-soon-let-you-send-highe r-quality-images-over-rcs


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