Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

How to turn on the futuristic RCS messaging in Google Messages right now

Mark Jansen
By

SMS messages are old and boring — RCS messaging is the future. For the uninitiated, RCS messaging — short for “rich communication services” — turns your phone’s standard text messaging app into a chat service like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. That means real-time typing indications, group chats, audio and video messages, and even interactive content.

Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Well, it is. Unfortunately, it’s not here yet. While RCS messaging is rolling out, it’s not arriving quickly — and that’s because it’s reliant on each carrier turning the service on. While those on Google Fi can already enjoy RCS messaging, if you’re on another major U.S. carrier, you’ll have to wait until the switch is flipped by each company in turn.

Recommended Videos

Or will you? It turns out you can force Google Messages to use RCS before a carrier has turned it on. To do so requires a couple of steps, but it’s not tough to accomplish. As reported by Android Police, there is a way to turn on RCS, and here’s how you can do it.

Related

What you’ll need to do beforehand

Google

Turning on RCS services is simple and straightforward, but there are a few additional steps you’ll need to take before you can get started.

Register for the Google Messages beta and download Activity Launcher

The big prep step involves registering for the Google Messages beta version. Unfortunately, this trick won’t work in the current live version of Messages, so you’ll need beta access. Thankfully, it’s easy to access. Just tell Google you want beta access, then download the Messages (Beta) app.

You’ll also need to make a few changes to the Messages app, so you’ll need to download Activity Manager, too. It looks like something from the dawn of Android, but it’s required to get RCS working.

Turning on RCS in Google Messages

Once you’ve downloaded all the apps and betas you need, you’re good to go. Here’s how to quickly turn on RCS messaging:

  • Turn off Wi-Fi. Apparently it can interfere with the process of turning RCS on.
  • Open the Activity Launcher app, tap the drop-down menu, and tap Activities.
  • Scroll down to Messages, tap it, then select Set RCS Flags.
  • Tap the drop-down list beneath ACS Url and tap on the option named “http://rcs-acs-prod-us.sandbox.google.com.” It’s black on gray, though, so be careful you’re selecting the correct path.
  • Then tap the drop-down for OTP Pattern and select “Your\sMessenger\sverification\scode\sis\sG-(\d{6}).” Then tap the Apply button.

Now you’ll need to force close the Messages app. You can do this either by heading to Settings > Apps & Notifications> View all apps > Messages, and tapping Force close in the options, or by long-pressing the Messages icon in your app drawer and selecting either Info or the “i” symbol, and tapping the Force close option. You’re not done yet, but you are on the home stretch.

  • Now, re-open the Messages app.
  • You may be greeted by a banner at the bottom of the page asking you to upgrade your experience. Tap Upgrade Now to get started. If there’s no banner, just tap the “i” ringed by a star at the top-right of the screen.
  • Then just follow the setup process to finish setting it up.

Setting it up can take a little time, so feel free to leave it alone while it does its thing. You can check whether RCS is working by tapping the three dots in the top-right, selecting Settings > Chat features, and checking the Status field. If RCS is working, it’ll read “Connected.” You can also choose whether you want to send read receipts and other features here.

There are reports that it can take as many as three or more tries to connect to the RCS service, so keep trying if it doesn’t seem to work the first time. Additionally, this feature may disappear at any point in the future. It’s part of the beta, yes — but since it’s so well hidden, it may be that Google locks the option back down in the next build. So enjoy it while you can.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Jansen
Mark Jansen
Contributor
Mark Jansen is an avid follower of everything that beeps, bloops, or makes pretty lights. He has a degree in Ancient &…
It’s finally happening — your iPhone is getting RCS in 2024
iMessage on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, plus iMessage on an Android phone using the Beeper app.

Today is a day I truly didn't expect would ever happen. On November 16, 2023, Apple officially confirmed that RCS texting is finally coming to the iPhone in 2024.

Yes, you read that correctly. Starting "later next year," Apple will add RCS support to the iPhone. In other words, if you have an Android phone and are texting someone with an iPhone, you'll be able to text each other over RCS instead of SMS. That means you'll get many iMessage-like features such as typing indicators, read receipts, higher-resolution photo/video sharing, etc.

Read more
One of our favorite Android phones just got its own iMessage app
Nothing Chats app on a. phone.

Nothing is trying to bridge the great blue/green bubble divide for Android users of iMessage. This is not a personal crusade to shatter walls and open windows, as much as Nothing CEO Carl Pei would want you to believe that. Instead, Nothing is piggybacking on tech created by New York-based startup Sunbird. 
Technically, the Sunbird app can be installed on any Android phone and it features a blue bubble for all iMessage text exchanges involving an Android phone. No more green bubble shame that could get you kicked out of groups for disrupting the harmony or even slim your dating chances. That’s how bad it is! 
Nothing is adopting the Sunbird tech and bundling it as its very own app under the name Nothing Chats. But here’s the fun part. The app only works on the Nothing Phone 2 and not the Nothing Phone 1. And this life-altering boon will only be bestowed upon users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., or the EU bloc.

The app is currently in the beta phase, which means some iMessage features will be broken or absent. Once the app is downloaded on your Nothing Phone 2, you can create a new account or sign up with your Apple ID to get going with blue bubble texts. 
Just in case you’re concerned, all messages will be end-to-end encrypted, and the app doesn’t collect any personal information, such as the users’ geographic location or the texts exchanged. Right now, Sunbird and Nothing have not detailed the iMessage features and those that are broken. 
We made iMessage for Android...
The Washington Post tried an early version of the Nothing Chats app and notes that the blue bubble system works just fine. Texts between an Android device and an iPhone are neatly arranged in a thread, and multimedia exchange is also allowed at full quality. 
However, message editing is apparently not available, and a double-tap gesture for responding with a quick emoji doesn’t work either. We don’t know when these features will be added. Nothing's Sunbird-based app will expand to other territories soon. 
Sunbird, however, offers a handful of other tricks aside from serving the iMessage blue bubble on Android. It also brings all your other messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Instagram, in one place. This isn’t an original formula, as Beeper offers the same convenience.

Read more
Google witness accidentally reveals how much Apple gets for Safari search
The Google "G" logo on an Android phone.

As part of a deal to be the default search engine on Apple devices, Google pays the tech giant 36% of the revenue earned via search ad activity on Apple's Safari browser.

It’s extremely rare for information of this nature to be made public. In this case, it was released during Google’s defense at the Justice Department's antitrust trial in Washington, D.C.

Read more