Major U.S. Cell Providers to Replace SMS Texting With RCS

[Corrine]

From Verizon at AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon form joint venture to transform messaging experience

 

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon have created a joint venture to deliver a Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI), a next generation of messaging service to consumers and businesses. The service, based on GSMA’s Rich Communications Service (RCS) industry standard, will enable an engaging way for consumers to interact and transact with each other and with businesses.

 

According to Goodbye SMS texting, hello RCS | ZDNet,

 

This will include group chats, video and audio messaging, high-resolution images, read receipts, and indicators when someone is replying to your message in real-time.

 

The replacement messaging service is expected to start on Android phones in 2020.

 

[securitybreach]

And the kicker to this whole thing:
 

Quote

The one hole with this new universal texting platform is it doesn't support end-to-end encryption. If security and privacy are important to you, you'll want to stick to IM clients such as

Signal.

 

You will not catch me using it until there is some security in play.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hmm... I guess my SMS from email probably won't work anymore. :(

[sunrat]

What this means for most of the world is higher res emojis.