RCS vs SMS: what’s the difference?

SMS messages are an essential feature of every modern smartphone, as the benefits of SMS are many compared to calling someone on their phone. Everyone can reply at their own pace and a log of conversations is available that people can refer back to. All phones come with SMS messaging capabilities but these fantastic Android smartphones also have additional RCS messaging capabilities. But what exactly is the difference between SMS and RCS? We explain it in this article!

What is SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service. As the name suggests, it is a protocol used to send and receive short text messages. Messages are sent and received over your mobile network and you do not need a data plan for it to work. Your carrier may charge separate fees for each SMS sent, although receiving SMS is generally free.

In the early days of mobile phones, SMS messages were intended to supplement voice calls. As such, the protocol has features that seem very dated in this era of addictive instant messaging apps and social media. For example, SMS only allows for text messages and even then with a limit of 160 characters. These 160 characters can be letters, numbers, and symbols, but that is all.

You cannot exceed the character limit in an SMS. If you do, the characters will spill over to the next SMS, potentially fragmenting the conversation depending on your phone’s messaging app. This is not a major issue on modern smartphones, but something to keep in mind if you are resigned to sending or receiving messages on a basic feature phone.

You cannot send any media through SMS. So you cannot send photos, videos, audio, or GIFs via SMS, which is a major drawback considering the depth these add to our daily conversations. As a result, SMS is best known and used for simple, short text messages.

What is RCS?

It is not an exaggeration that SMS has not been able to compete with modern instant messaging apps. We are at the point where texting is synonymous with instant messaging and we are not going back. RCS is the evolution of SMS and MMS. It stands for Rich Communication Services, a communication protocol like SMS.

RCS differs from traditional SMS by significantly extending the character limit on each message. You can also add all sorts of media to your messages, allowing you to share pictures, videos, and GIFs. You can even send location data and create group chats. You can also receive read receipts and your messages are also encrypted. This is possible because RCS uses internet data to send content instead of the conventional phone network.

However, while SMS is ubiquitous and available on virtually all cell phones and smartphones, RCS imposes certain conditions for their availability.
You don’t necessarily have to subscribe to RCS as you do with instant messaging apps but you still have to meet certain requirements. You need a phone that supports RCS and you must have a carrier that supports it. The other party must also meet the same conditions. Only then will the conversation take place via RCS. If the conditions are not met, the conversation will fall back to SMS.

SMS vs RCS: How do they compare?

Here is a quick look at the comparison between SMS and RCS.

As you can see, RCS is better than SMS in almost every area. The only advantage of SMS over RCS is that they work on almost all mobile phones, be it feature phones or smartphones, Android or iPhone. RCS has wide availability as long as the parameters are met by both parties.
One of the biggest hurdles to wider RCS adoption is that iPhones do not support RCS at all, forcing all text communications between an iPhone and an Android to be SMS only.

What are the advantages of using RCS over SMS?

As we listed, RCS has a plethora of advantages over SMS. The primary advantage of RCS is that you get a “rich messaging”-like experience straight from your stock messaging app (if it supports RCS). No additional platform subscriptions are needed, greatly improving user onboarding.

Beyond that, RCS greatly enhances the richness of your communication. You can be more expressive with images and videos, share your location, and more. This benefit is also great for businesses looking to use RCS for marketing. Instead of relying on boring, short texts, they can use more creative advertising and promotional materials. The platform allows them to create direct calls to action, which are significantly better for conversion than plain text sent via SMS.

An underrated advantage of RCS is that the most popular RCS apps are end-to-end encrypted. Keep in mind that not all RCS apps are encrypted, but the feature is available on the most popular apps at least. SMS is completely unencrypted, leaving the door open for malicious actors to snoop on your conversations.

Beyond the small amount of data required, RCS is also completely free to consumers. On the other hand, carriers usually charge for SMS based on individual messages or through bundled packages that give you a monthly limit for a certain amount of money. You can get “unlimited” SMS on carrier plans with other high perks, but you are still paying for a bundle.

Who can use RCS?

To use RCS, you need to have a supported carrier and smartphone. Most major carriers globally support the universal profile for RCS. These include Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Google Fi in the US. Globally, the list includes Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Docomo, Airtel, Jio, and many others that support RCS.

For smartphones, all Android phones are capable of using RCS, but you need to use a compatible client. The Google Messages app supports RCS and is pre-installed on most new smartphones nowadays and, if not, you can always download it from the Google Play Store. Samsung Messages also supports RCS. Many other messaging clients also support RCS. You might need to enable the feature, so follow our guide on how to enable RCS on your phone.

A big outlier in the above equation is Apple’s iPhone. iPhones do not support RCS, at least not officially. Apple prefers its proprietary iMessage service for iPhones over iPhone text messages. If an Android user attempts to send an RCS message to an iPhone, the message will fall back to SMS. This is the main sticking point in the infamous “blue bubble vs. green bubble” debate, as iMessage chats are all blue, while all SMS chats are green. Notably, a third-party app for iOS can now send and receive RCS messages. It’s something, at least.

Should you use RCS or SMS?

Given the long list of benefits, it’s a no-brainer to use RCS whenever possible. The features finally breathe new life into conventional text messaging, and once you get accustomed to them, you won’t be able to go back to plain text.

The only cases where SMS makes sense are for their ubiquity and as a fallback for RCS. When you send an SMS, you can be sure that the person will receive it without thinking too hard about carriers, phones, and apps. For that reason alone, SMS will remain a part of our lives, albeit relegated to the sidelines as RCS and other instant messaging apps take over. That should settle the RCS vs. SMS debate.

Conclusion

SMS and RCS are communication protocols. While SMS relies on simplicity and ubiquity, RCS offers significant feature upgrades in every other area. You are limited to short, simple texts in SMS, whereas RCS allows you to send images, videos, GIFs, locations, and more. SMS works over the cellular network (voice), whereas RCS works over the data network (cellular data or Wi-Fi).
Source: androidauthority