Video Calling Just Got A Big Upgrade - But Your Android Phone Might Not Get It For Years

RCS — or Rich Communication Services — has become the backbone of sending messages on Android phones, since it's the default way that Google Messages handles sending and receiving texts. A recent update to the RCS Universal Profile has given us a glimpse of what the platform might be capable of in the future, though it will likely be a while before we see it start to hit applications.

For starters, GSMA shared that the update to RCS Universal Profile 4.0 will enable quite a few new additions to RCS messaging, including the ability to make video calls directly inside a message thread. Further, GSMA says that messaging-initiated video calls (MIVC) would also pave the way for the first native video calling experience across multiple operating systems and networks.

The upgrades don't stop there, either. RCS Universal Profile 4.0 will also bring rich text and higher-quality media to the messaging experience. This means you'd be able to write text with more expressive formatting, like bold letters, italics, and even strikethroughs. As for the media upgrades, Universal Profile 4.0 has been finalized with the ability to send higher quality audio, video, and images by letting the device choose the most optimal encoding for the content it is transferring.

Of course, as exciting as all of this is, it's likely going to be a long while before we actually see these improvements hitting applications and smartphones. That's because, though the profile has been finalized by the GSMA, it still needs to be implemented. So far, Google and Apple have both been taking their time implementing the previous upgrades that Universal Profile 3.0 brought to the table. This includes full-blown MLS encryption — which developers are just now starting to test on Apple devices, and which Google has been testing for several months now. Those profiles have been finalized for over a year already, and we haven't even seen all the upgrades come to fruition.

Once smartphone brands introduce these features, though, carriers will also have to support them. This was especially prevalent back when Apple first introduced RCS on iPhone, as only certain carriers had turned RCS on for iPhone users. It seems like RCS is shaping up to be a fantastic messaging platform inside Google Messages, so long as Google continues to support it with useful new features like the recently added real-time location sharing.