Google to now start calling ‘Chat’ as RCS on Messages app

San Francisco: Launching the ‘Get the Message’ campaign last year to publicise the RCS communication protocol and make it more mainstream, Google has now taken another step in this direction to make RCS (Rich Communications Services) more consumer-friendly by calling ‘Chat’ RCS on its Messages app.

According to SamMobile, users enrolled in the Google Messages beta programme are seeing different terminology used in different places in relation to RCS chat.

The input field at the bottom of RCS-enabled conversations, which previously read ‘Chat message’, now appears to read ‘RCS message’.

The report said that the change can also be seen at the top entry of the in-app setting.

When users open the settings, they will notice additional changes, for example, everything that previously appeared as Chat now appears as RCS chat or simply RCS within the Google Messages app.

The ‘Enable chat features’ option has been renamed ‘Turn on RCS chat’ for users.

Users will also see the ‘Chatting with X’ changed to ‘RCS chat with X’ while they are in an end-to-end encrypted conversation, the report said.

RCS technology brings advanced messaging features such as read receipts, message reactions, and end-to-end encryption (E2E) on a compatible phone.