Nobody can answer that for you. Maybe yes, but maybe not. When RCS was introduced, it was a total mess. Accordingly, it was cancelled again. There is hardly any interest in RCS among providers, even if Apple has recently started supporting it. The reasons are obvious… It costs money, but you don’t earn any money with it today. Unfortunately, the bandwagon has long gone and WhatsApp has established itself with people, including grandma and grandpa. It’s still possible that it might “come back”, but there’s certainly no rush here. The demand for RCS is also still very limited. Most people out there probably don’t even know what exactly RCS is.
RCS is still a mess today:
In Apple’s latest operating system, RCS is only supported in the “Universal Profile” (UP) version.
And according to:
https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-drop-samsung-messages-google-messages-reason-3463520/
https://community.sunrise.ch/d/38858-ios-18-und-rcs-services-by-sunrise
the Samsung News app has been sidelined.
The good old SMS is still the lowest common denominator for communication via text messages between all mobile phones on this globe.
That’s exactly how it looks and as long as that’s the case, I don’t see a future. Full stop. As I said, no wonder the providers are not really interested in introducing and pushing RCS. Everything costs money and you don’t earn any with RCS. If I were Swisscom and Co., the topic of RCS would be very far down the list… if at all. From a purely economic point of view. They simply blew it years ago. Now the train has left the station.
The topic of “RCS” could become more important again at Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt if satellite communication finds its way into smartphones.
With 3GPP-compatible satellite communication at the latest, a cross-device standard for the global exchange of datagrams is needed. For cost reasons, satellite communication is primarily based on datagrams. SMS is also a form of datagram. But just sending short text messages is no longer enough for the demanding customers of mobile phone providers today…
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datagramm
On the subject of “Satellite communication with smartphones”, see:
3GPP Release 19 will enable the intermediate storage of datagrams to be transmitted on satellites. This intermediate storage of datagrams in the satellite memory is called “Store and Forward (S&F) Satellite operation”:
Store and Forward (S&F) Satellite operation for delay-tolerant communication service: to provide communication service for UEs under satellite coverage without a simultaneous active feeder link connection to the ground segment (esp. relevant for delay-tolerant IoT services via NGSO space segment)
Source: https://www.3gpp.org/technologies/ntn-overview
Intermediate storage of datagrams on the satellite is required if the satellite has no line of sight to a ground station (gateway) at the time of datagram reception from the mobile device (UE).
3GPP-compliant satellite communication via a LEO satellite network is always costly because the construction of these global LEO satellite networks always costs several billion CHF. The most recent example is the IRIS² satellite network:
https://www.digitec.ch/de/page/eu-initiiert-starlink-konkurrent-waehrend-china-bereits-abhebt-36092
The IMS in the mobile phone provider’s core network is there to ensure that the mobile phone provider supports the basic services in its mobile phone network. The basic services include:
- Voice telephony via MSISDN (telephone number +41 79 xxx yy zz)
- Transmission of short text messages (SMS)
- Transmission of datagrams (RCS)
- Control of emergency calls (telephone numbers: 112, 117, 118, 144 and so on)
- Roaming
- Push-to-talk (PTT) => https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push-to-Talk
a month later
I only use SMS/RCS (the only native system for everyone, still used for tickets, confirmations, etc) and Messenger, which I have to have because of Facebook. I don’t want to add any other systems yet (always big discussions among “friends”.
RCS is very good and close to instant messaging. The problem is that it works well on Android. Apple only recently enabled this but Swisscom unacceptably did not do its part and it still does not work.
iO was good, but finished.
Note that from 2025, certain messaging services such as WhatsApp and Messenger will be compatible in Europe (written texts, groups in). 2025; audio and video in 2027).
I only use SMS/RCS (the only native system for everyone, still used for tickets, confirmations, etc) and Messenger, which I have to have because of Facebook. I don’t want to add any other systems yet (always big discussions among “friends”.
RCS is very good and close to instant messaging. The problem is that it works well on Android. Apple only recently enabled this but Swisscom unacceptably did not do its part and it still does not work.
iO was good, but finished.
Note that from 2025, certain messaging services such as WhatsApp and Messenger will be compatible in Europe (written texts, groups in). 2025; audio and video in 2027).