Verizon and T-Mobile Pixel 4 Will Not Support RCS at Launch
RCS or Rich Communication Services is a technology that plans to serve as an alternative to conventional SMS. Google has been supporting this tech for a while now and has naturally included this with the new Pixel 4 as well. However, as per two separate reports coming out of Twitter, T-Mobile and Verizon will not support RCS on the Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL at launch.
Unfortunately, both companies refused to elaborate on the reasoning behind this. The lack of support on Verizon is quite surprising considering the fact that the Pixel 3 on its network had RCS support when it broke cover last year.
https://twitter.com/VZWSupport/status/1184962913813041152
Hey there, Thomas. Great question! No, the new T-Mobile Pixels do not support RCS at this time. DM us with additional questions. Thanks! https://t.co/xa3Nj2eHVd ^AlishaCombs
— T-Mobile Help (@TMobileHelp) October 15, 2019
It’s not clear at this point if either carrier plans to enable this feature sometime in the near future, although we won’t be holding our breath. We’re particularly curious to hear about this from Google since it has already faced multiple criticisms with regards to limiting original quality photo storage. Oddly, iPhone users seem to be retaining unlimited storage at original quality while the Pixel 4 owners won’t get these benefits. We’re hoping to get further clarification on this front as well as the lack of RCS on T-Mobile and Verizon’s networks.
In June this year, Google mentioned that RCS was going to be an opt-in service from the Messages app. Further, this meant Google would use its own RCS-compliant server instead of relying on the carrier. It is likely that this is one of the reasons behind the two carriers opting out of Google’s RCS service, although it’s too early to tell at this point.
What do you make of this?
Via: Engadget