Comments from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile suggest they have killed their joint Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative, which aimed to establish RCS interoperability
Rich Communications Service, a tech to replace SMS & MMS and make regular text messaging more like Apple Messages or Facebook's WhatsApp. @mikeddano pinged several US players, and they don't sound encouraging. https://www.lightreading.com/ ... Dean Bubley / @disruptivedean : In 2010 I published a report suggesting how the mobile industry could “salvage something from the wreckage of RCS” 11 years later, the wreckage is still smoking. But it looks like AT&T & Verizon have at least found a fire extinguisher #RCS #zombietech https://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com / ... https://twitter.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : One tiny bit of news, AT&T finally committed and gave us virtually the same statement Verizon did. It's also done with the CCMI https://twitter.com/... Thanks: @mikeddano
Light ReadingMike Dano
Context & Ripple Effects
When Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint launched the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative in October 2019, the plan was a carrier-run consortium that would make RCS interoperable across US networks by 2020. Instead, Light Reading reports the three surviving carriers' comments point to the joint body being dead.
What replaced it was never formalized as an alternative — but the related coverage shows where interoperability actually landed: one by one, AT&T, T-Mobile, and finally Verizon made Google's Android Messages their default RCS client, with Verizon joining last. The carriers gave up building the standard together and adopted a single company's app instead.
First-order effects
The three carriers lose the governance layer they built to control RCS rollout themselves — feature timing, branding, and cross-carrier enablement now route through Google's Android Messages rather than a joint initiative they co-owned.
Second-order effects
With carrier-side interoperability handled by Google's app, the open question shifts entirely to Apple: whether iMessage ever swaps its SMS fallback for RCS is now the only remaining wall between Android and iPhone rich messaging.
Third-order effects
Telecom standards bodies and carrier consortia are being bypassed by platform owners who ship interoperability inside their own apps — the same pattern that left intermediaries like Syniverse holding legacy SMS routing power between carriers.
The trend: Carrier-controlled messaging standards are collapsing into platform-owned clients, moving control of text-message interoperability from telco consortia to Google and Apple.
Here's my latest RCS take, inspired by @mikeddano's reporting on the end of CCMI. To me this is GOOD news for RCS, as it's the end of a very bad plan. Whether Verizon or AT&T have a better plan remains to be seen though. https://www.theverge.com/...
@bdsams
Brad Sams on x
You mean the devil didn't want to work with its counterpart? Shocking. https://twitter.com/...
@karissabe
Karissa Bell on x
At this point, all I (an iPhone user) want is for group texts with green bubbles to actually send properly and for pics/videos not appear as teeny tiny thumbnails that look they came from a flip phone https://www.lightreading.com/ ...
@ohmdee
@ohmdee on x
With Google's soft touch approach to carriers and OEMs, and Apple's stubborn refusal to adopt it, RCS was doomed from the start. https://twitter.com/...
@backlon
Dieter Bohn on x
Rumors of RCS' death are much exaggerated. This is actually GOOD news. CCMI was always a boondoggle and would have meant custom carrier-made apps for Android. Yuck. Instead Android Messages will become the norm. RCS is coming slowly but it's still coming. https://www.lightreading…
@mikeddano
Mike Dano on x
MY LATEST SCOOP AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile announced in 2019 that they would jointly launch RCS messaging in 2020. But it was not to be. “The owners of the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative decided to end the joint venture effort,” says Verizon. https://www.lightreading.com/ ...…
@rstephens
Robert Stephens on x
Bwahahahahaha. Green bubbles all the way down. https://twitter.com/...
@stshank
Stephen Shankland on x
I hope you weren't too excited about RCS — Rich Communications Service, a tech to replace SMS & MMS and make regular text messaging more like Apple Messages or Facebook's WhatsApp. @mikeddano pinged several US players, and they don't sound encouraging. https://www.lightreading.co…
@disruptivedean
Dean Bubley on x
In 2010 I published a report suggesting how the mobile industry could “salvage something from the wreckage of RCS” 11 years later, the wreckage is still smoking. But it looks like AT&T & Verizon have at least found a fire extinguisher #RCS #zombietech https://disruptivewireless.b…
@backlon
Dieter Bohn on x
One tiny bit of news, AT&T finally committed and gave us virtually the same statement Verizon did. It's also done with the CCMI https://twitter.com/...