AT&T starts using Google's Jibe platform for RCS messages

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AT&T has supported RCS messaging on Android phones
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. But if you
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, the experience hasn’t always been great, with interoperability between different devices
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. That’s about to change. Over the weekend, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s senior vice president of Android, tweeted (via
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) that AT&T is migrating its RCS backend to Google’s own Jibe platform. Per Lockheimer, the change means AT&T customers will get the latest RCS features “instantly.” It should also resolve any lingering interoperability issues between AT&T phones and devices on different networks.

Today I'm excited to share that we're working with AT&T to accelerate adoption of the RCS standard, and that AT&T's default Android messaging will now be via the Jibe platform, so their users will get the latest RCS features instantly.

— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer)
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AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have been committed to RCS since forming the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative in
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, but it was only after announcing the
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, and Google becoming more directly involved with pushing the platform, that RCS began finding a foothold in the US. In 2021,
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became the first carrier to commit to preloading Google Messages on its Android devices. A year later, Verizon
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.


At I/O 2023, Google announced that there are more than 800 million people using RCS globally, with that number expected to increase to 1 billion by the end of the year. Still, the platform faces a major hurdle. Apple has shown no signs it’s
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, even if Google keeps
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. Until something changes, that means RCS features like end-to-end encryption don’t work when Android users text friends and family members who use iPhones.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
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