‘Next level’ messaging technology could be rolled out in Australia next year
Messaging could soon get an upgrade in Australia. Photo: Getty
Telcos are reportedly in talks to introduce new messaging technology locally, but Australians may not notice much of a change.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Australia’s major telcos are in confidential negotiations with Google over its Rich Communication Services (RCS) technology before a possible 2025 launch date.
The telcos stayed mum on the talks with Google, but TPG and Telstra confirmed the introduction of RCS was on the table.
The rollout of RCS would mark one of the biggest changes in mobile phone messaging since SMS (Short Message Service) was introduced in the early 1990s and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) in 2002.
It would also bring Australia in line with countries such as Canada and Brazil.
For consumers, benefits will include the ability to text higher-resolution images and videos, along with bigger files.
Group chats between iPhone and Android users, which traditionally have more restrictions on what they can send compared to groups of people who use the same type of phone, would get the ability to share media and see when other chat members are typing.
RCS could also allow people to text emergency services rather than call, including images that might be relevant for first responders, RMIT University School of Engineering associate professor Mark Gregory told TND.
He said this functionality would be particularly useful for people unable to make phone calls, either because of an emergency situation, or due to hearing or speech impairments.
“SMS … it’s quite old technology… it’s really designed around short, simple messages that can be sent between mobile devices,” he said.
“What they’re essentially trying to do [with RCS] is to take messaging to the next level … not that you can’t do some of these things with the latest iteration of SMS and MMS, [but] it’s easier to do.
“For the telcos, it uses a lot more modern technologies, therefore it’s better integrated with the 5G-type environment.”
Independent telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said most mobile users will not notice much difference when RCS becomes available in Australia.
“For us consumers, we already use various messaging systems,” he said.
“This will be just another one. It’s not groundbreaking.”
Instead, the biggest changes will be behind the scenes, with telcos to benefit most from using the technology for more efficient networks.
And using Google’s RCS technology takes the pressure off telcos having to develop and invest in their own systems.
Telcos have not been the only companies holding up the transition to RCS; Apple only rolled out RCS to its devices in an iOS update in September.
RCS will only be available if it is supported by mobile carriers, and iPhone users must manually change their settings to use it instead of iMessage.
Budde said there is unlikely to be any changes to message security when RCS is adopted.
He said telcos would continue to use their existing “stringent”, but “not 100 per cent bulletproof” security systems to protect users from malicious actors like scammers.
Encryption may also vary between phone brands.
Although Google says RCS Google messages are end-to-end encrypted, Apple says this is not the case for RCS messages on its devices.
