Tech giant Google is all smiles after reaching a major milestone featuring one billion active users for its RCS messaging service.
Seeing so many people take on the huge upgrade related to the world of MMS and SMS is big news. And seeing the way the Android Messages platform has revolutionized the world of tech is mind-blowing, to say the least.
Celebrations are taking place as the Android maker attained this big 10-digit target for RCS, especially during a period that we saw it struggle to get American carriers on board.
While the company agrees that there might be so many others who still continue to text without making use of RCS technology, seeing the figure of billion downloads in just 2020 May truly made the world realize that this was a huge force to reckon with.
At the start, it was nearly impossible to even think about the service’s success that’s seen today but as time went on, Google reigned supreme with close to three billion devices making use of RCS around the world in 2022.
Recently, the company did not put out stats as to where the figure stands at this moment in time but it must be huge as the demand is plenty with active users growing with time.
To mark this massive occasion, the company is rolling out some exciting new features worth a mention. This includes those pertaining to its Messages, Google TV, Android, and even Wear OS.
The company mentioned how the goal was to take the whole emoji experience to a new level and we’re covering each of them for you in detail below.
For starters, users will get the Photomoji which enables users to transform pictures into emojis so that you can consider those alongside the hundreds of other classic options present for expressing emotions during conversations.
Next up, it’s Voice Moods where users put out voice messages with the option to select a specific emoji-filled background. And there are nine to choose from, turning the whole chat into something exciting and worthwhile.
Other than that, the Screen Effects option is designed to cater to whatever emotion you’re feeling at that point in time, enabling the screen to light up as soon as a specific keyword is added as the prompt. And so far, we’re hearing about 15 of them.
Meanwhile, Custom Bubbles is designed to enable users to repaint Bubbles seen around specific texts and it recolors backgrounds so it’s simpler to differentiate between various threads.
You can even have fun with Reaction Effects where users can react with emojis but tapping on them, giving room to animated Messages for chats with an added dose of more emojis. After all, you can never have one emoji too many right.
To get bigger emojis, Google rolled out Animated Emojis which transform any small-sized one that is bigger, better, and animated version. How cool is that?
Last but not least, you can make the most of Profiles which is designed to create Portaits with a name and contact details which would pop up on the user’s screen of those that might not have you stored as a part of their list.
We also saw the search engine giant publish more exciting but different offerings for the likes of Wear OS and Google TV. To be more specific, the other leading non-Messages rollout for Android is the Emoji Kitchen that’s found on the Gboard Android App so it could be used on other mail platforms and messaging apps.
There’s a new TalkBack screen reader that utilizes AI to produce picture descriptions and then another Live Caption option that was rolled out for Android 10 to provide greater support for different languages.
And if you’ve got security and privacy on your mind at all times, you can even put out PINs for use as extra security features on a device.
For Wear OS, the company added greater control like shortcuts for common smart home functions. You can for instance adjust lighting at specific timings or customize Google Home to display specific statuses when you might not be in town. Similarly, you can use Google Assistant functions through your Wear OS watch.
For those with Google TV, users can benefit from ten more exciting television channels without any additional cost, other than the already giant list of channels to choose from that’s seen on the software.
We should be seeing the company make an even bigger announcement in terms of where the figure count of RCS users has reached during the year’s start in 2024. And that’s also when we expect to see fellow arch-rival Apple provide support for the Messages app across its iOS interface.
Some speculations about adding RCS to Voice Calls and Voice Messages might even be on the cards soon. But we’ll keep you updated if and when that happens.
Read next: Meta Rolls Out Keyword Search For Threads As App Finally Gears Up For EU Launch This Month
Seeing so many people take on the huge upgrade related to the world of MMS and SMS is big news. And seeing the way the Android Messages platform has revolutionized the world of tech is mind-blowing, to say the least.
Celebrations are taking place as the Android maker attained this big 10-digit target for RCS, especially during a period that we saw it struggle to get American carriers on board.
While the company agrees that there might be so many others who still continue to text without making use of RCS technology, seeing the figure of billion downloads in just 2020 May truly made the world realize that this was a huge force to reckon with.
At the start, it was nearly impossible to even think about the service’s success that’s seen today but as time went on, Google reigned supreme with close to three billion devices making use of RCS around the world in 2022.
Recently, the company did not put out stats as to where the figure stands at this moment in time but it must be huge as the demand is plenty with active users growing with time.
To mark this massive occasion, the company is rolling out some exciting new features worth a mention. This includes those pertaining to its Messages, Google TV, Android, and even Wear OS.
The company mentioned how the goal was to take the whole emoji experience to a new level and we’re covering each of them for you in detail below.
For starters, users will get the Photomoji which enables users to transform pictures into emojis so that you can consider those alongside the hundreds of other classic options present for expressing emotions during conversations.
Next up, it’s Voice Moods where users put out voice messages with the option to select a specific emoji-filled background. And there are nine to choose from, turning the whole chat into something exciting and worthwhile.
Other than that, the Screen Effects option is designed to cater to whatever emotion you’re feeling at that point in time, enabling the screen to light up as soon as a specific keyword is added as the prompt. And so far, we’re hearing about 15 of them.
Meanwhile, Custom Bubbles is designed to enable users to repaint Bubbles seen around specific texts and it recolors backgrounds so it’s simpler to differentiate between various threads.
You can even have fun with Reaction Effects where users can react with emojis but tapping on them, giving room to animated Messages for chats with an added dose of more emojis. After all, you can never have one emoji too many right.
To get bigger emojis, Google rolled out Animated Emojis which transform any small-sized one that is bigger, better, and animated version. How cool is that?
Last but not least, you can make the most of Profiles which is designed to create Portaits with a name and contact details which would pop up on the user’s screen of those that might not have you stored as a part of their list.
We also saw the search engine giant publish more exciting but different offerings for the likes of Wear OS and Google TV. To be more specific, the other leading non-Messages rollout for Android is the Emoji Kitchen that’s found on the Gboard Android App so it could be used on other mail platforms and messaging apps.
There’s a new TalkBack screen reader that utilizes AI to produce picture descriptions and then another Live Caption option that was rolled out for Android 10 to provide greater support for different languages.
And if you’ve got security and privacy on your mind at all times, you can even put out PINs for use as extra security features on a device.
For Wear OS, the company added greater control like shortcuts for common smart home functions. You can for instance adjust lighting at specific timings or customize Google Home to display specific statuses when you might not be in town. Similarly, you can use Google Assistant functions through your Wear OS watch.
For those with Google TV, users can benefit from ten more exciting television channels without any additional cost, other than the already giant list of channels to choose from that’s seen on the software.
We should be seeing the company make an even bigger announcement in terms of where the figure count of RCS users has reached during the year’s start in 2024. And that’s also when we expect to see fellow arch-rival Apple provide support for the Messages app across its iOS interface.
Some speculations about adding RCS to Voice Calls and Voice Messages might even be on the cards soon. But we’ll keep you updated if and when that happens.
Read next: Meta Rolls Out Keyword Search For Threads As App Finally Gears Up For EU Launch This Month
