Rich Communication Service Provider in Mumbai India — Troika Plus
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a communication protocol aimed at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is richer and can transmit in-call multimedia.
Google and Reliance Jio is RCS ready.
With RCS, enterprises can now provide a rich app-experience on a messaging interface without customers needing to download your app.
Why should you consider RCS Messages?
1. Rich Media: Share images, videos, music, maps etc. Construct engagements where customers can review and select several products or services
2. Branded communications: Incorporate your brand through rich media content, profile images, avatars, icons.
3. Actionable Buttons: Provide actionable buttons to enable purchases, product/ services options, polling etc.
4. Suggested replies: Provide suggested replies that can accelerate customer engagements.
5. Link to payments: Enable customer payments by linking directly to their bank accounts or online wallet
6. Carousels: Provide carousels in rich media that customers can browse.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is the next generation of an aging SMS protocol, which has been here since the early days of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM).
The SMS protocol is about 27 years old.
As for RCS, it offers advanced features such as file transfer, typing indicators, multimedia and more. This makes it similar to iMessage.
Texting is so boring — at least, the kind that you can do by default on all handphones, no matter how basic. It offers plain vanilla when we long for the cassata quality of a WhatsApp or a Facebook Messenger, where we can attach photos, videos or sound bytes.
But these new age messaging apps have their limitations. For starters, you need an Internet connection — which many basic feature phones lack. And the biggest hassle is that your recipient must also be a WhatsApp or FB Messenger user. But all that is about to change: 2019 should see India among a handful of nations graduating to a new multimedia avatar of the basic SMS. It’s called Rich Communication Service or RCS and incredibly, is technology that was adopted, a full ten years ago, by the GSM Association, the global body of cell phone services. The main evangelist is Google and it looks like its push has finally come to shove: Three months ago, Samsung came on board to incorporate RCS into its mobile phones starting with the Galaxy S8. In the US, Verizon is the first telecom player to offer RCS, in a limited way — on Google’s Pixel 3 XL handset.
Google has been working on RCS protocol to create its “Jibe Cloud” platform since ever. However, it has faced delays in rolling out RCS messaging on Android due to issues with getting carriers on board because RCS adoption will cut into the SMS revenue. To recall, GSMA released a Universal Profile for RCS in 2016 and two OS makers, 47 mobile operators, and 11 smartphone makers pledged to support RCS.
The possibilities are infinite. RCS promises to live up to its name and bring a rich new level of communication your phone in the New Year.
RCS Messaging will allow users to send rich, verified messages, which means messages will be able to carry more information and enable users to send photos, videos and audio messages to one another. Users will be able to make video calls directly from the messaging app and won’t have to rely on third-party software. Further, RCS will remove the restriction of 160 character limit currently found in SMS.
In 2019, we can expect to graduate from SMS to RCS as more devices and services providers join in. Is it a big deal — and if so how big?
As for security, RCS messages are sent with client-to-server encryption. The protocol is also said to prevent spam messages from reaching your device. This is because to send a message via RCS, a company will have to go through a brand verification process. Received RCS messages will have the company’s name in the sender info, rather than just a mobile phone number.
How Google’s RCS in India Work?
Google works on this RCS protocol to create its ‘Jibe Cloud’ to implement RCS Universal Profile. However, the adoption is extremely slow as it cut into the SMS revenue of the cellular carriers. It also announced that it rolls out RCS support as an opt-in service through the ‘Messages’ app and it works on Wi-Fi or mobile data.
In addition, Google clarified that it will host this opt-in service instead of waiting for the carriers and reports claim that any Android smartphone user on any telecom operator can opt-in for RCS. The company also started internal testing in the beta version of its ‘Messages’ app.
To enable RCS features, open Google Messages app, Tap on the three dot button, head over to Settings — Chat Features, and turn on the toggle next to ‘Enable Chat Features’.
How RCS Can Transform the SMS facility?
Decades ago, with an aim to retrace RCS, several industry promoters started developing the RCS protocol and back in 2016, GSMA launches a Universal Profile for RCS. However, after the launch, 47 mobile operators, 11 smart phone makers and two operating system makers agreed to support the RCS.
RCS Messaging allow users to send rich, verified messages that carry more information and enable users to send images, videos and audio messages to others. Also, users need not download any 3rd party software to make video calls, as video calls can be made directly from the messaging app. RCS will also take away the restriction of 160 character limit currently found in SMS. In terms of security, RCS protocol prevents spam messages from reaching the devices. The messages received from the RCS will also have the company’s name along with the mobile phone number.
With WhatsApp proving every now and then how it isn’t the most secure messaging service, it is okay to look for better alternatives. While we do have apps like Hike, Telegram etc, Google has been working on its RCS messaging platform for a while now and it has finally launched its services in India. Here’s what does it bring to the table.
Like iMessage for Android
Currently, iPhone users have a completely different messaging platform that allows the iPhone to detect another iPhone user, just with the reception of a message. Yes, I am talking about the green and blue chat bubbles (green signifies Android whereas blue signifies iPhones or iOS devices). Apple’s iMessage allows users from blue bubbles to send multimedia messages, stickers just like a regular messenger, however, same isn’t applicable for the ‘green’ bubbles. RCS is very similar to this.
What about encryption?
That’s one place where Google’s RCS is lacking slightly behind. As of now, it isn’t end-to-end encrypted, but it still is client-to-user encrypted. Which means, you won’t get those annoying spam texts anymore. However, Google is also working on bringing end-to-encryption to RCS chats to make them more secure in future.
Troika Plus will launch its services soon.
Call or WhatsApp: +91 9821211741 to know more…
