SMS covenant ends after 28 years?

WhatsApp, an application owned by Facebook, is used by more than one and a half billion people worldwide every month to communicate with their loved ones because it is free to send messages and only requires an internet connection.

But it looks like WhatsApp is regarding to face its biggest rival as Google has made text messaging on Android phones almost as good as WhatsApp itself.

Google Messages is essentially part of the company’s Rich Communication Service (RCS), which has been in the works since 2016 and will replace SMS, or Short Message Service, which has been around for more than 25 years while users It will be able to use features like chat over Wi-Fi, facility to send and receive high-resolution photos and videos, read receipt, typing detectors and add or remove people in group chats.‎

After 2 years of efforts, Google has finally started providing access to this SMS alternative to Android users worldwide (excluding China and Russia).

Now, instead of mobile companies, RCS chat services will be provided directly by Google through the Android Messages app, which simply requires installing the app and using it instead of the default text app.

RCS was introduced by Google last year in the UK, France and the US, and Google is now working on adding end-to-end encryption to it.

Currently, the feature will be available to users using the beta version, but will gradually become part of one-on-one chat by default, following which mobile carriers or Google will no longer be able to read the content of any messages.

Last year, Sanz Ahari, Google’s product management director, said in an interview that we face technical complications with end-to-end encryption, as we also have to look at the legal and policy issues of partners.

Referring to RCS, he said that this update should have come a long time ago, because at that time SMS protocol in Android system is not available to users with advanced features.

He said that these are features that work according to the requirements of the current era, which is an important step in the right direction.

Last year, following difficulties in partnering with mobile companies around the world, Google took matters into its own hands and gradually started providing RCS services directly in different countries, waiting for local mobile companies to do so. Not done.

Now Google has announced that this process is complete and RCS services are now available to everyone worldwide through Android Messages.

That is, now it can be said that finally the promise of SMS has ended following this step of Google and in the near future the messages sent under this service will also be away from the access of others thanks to end-to-end encryption.

However, it is difficult to say how long the feature of end-to-end encrypted messages will be available to all users.

According to the company, if a user sends a message to someone who is not using Android Messages, the service will still work, but the advanced features or end-to-end encryption will not work.

Remember that the world’s first SMS was sent on December 3, 1992, in which ‘Merry Christmas’ was typed.

The SMS was sent by Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old employee of Sema Group, a UK telecom company, to Richard Derwas, the company’s director, who was busy at a Christmas party.

SMS is a 160 character service that has been around for 28 years but today’s phones are more powerful and users demand more features and this is what led to the success of WhatsApp and Messenger.