And though the iPhone definitely dominates the US market, Samsung sitting at #2 isn’t too shabby either. It’s the world’s largest Android manufacturer by a comfortable margin, now that Huawei is barely a player in the West. The new phones come pre-loaded with Google Messages (albeit with a Samsung skin), making it the de facto messaging standard for Android phones going forward.Īfter all, Samsung is constantly trading punches with Apple for the title of the #1 smartphone maker on the planet. Now that all US carriers have backed RCS via Google Messages, Samsung has finally seen fit to switch to Google Messages in America with the Galaxy S22. Besides, you know, getting people to use its services.

RCS is a little convoluted, which is why Google has sought to unify the standard behind the Messages app.

Technically, Samsung’s own messaging app does support RCS, but whether or not it actually works depends on your carrier.

The Galaxy S22 family is the first to default to Google Messages, allowing for more standardized RCS support. But the lack of support from Samsung has been one of the biggest hurdles for the standard to overcome. With Google spearheading the RCS movement, many of the best Android phones have adopted Google Messages for the most consistent RCS texting experience. But on the Android side of the fence, it’s Samsung that’s needed some prodding. Apple has been a longtime holdout, sticking to iMessage in order to keep consumers in its walled garden. The problem is: not every phone actually supports RCS out of the box - at least not properly. Sure, RCS isn’t really better than the myriad messaging apps people already use, but it’s a dramatic improvement over plain-old text messaging, adding features we’ve come to expect from modern communication services, including encryption, read receipts, reactions, and high-quality images. Google’s effort to get everyone behind RCS - or Rich Communication Services, the standard attempting to replace SMS and MMS - is admirable.

Samsung new message app download