Rich Communication Suite
| Developer(s) | GSM Association |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2012 |
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Android, Windows 10 Mobile |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Type | Instant Messaging |
| License | Proprietary software |
| Website | www |
Rich Communication Services is a communication protocol between mobile-telephone carriers and between phone and carrier, aiming at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is more rich, provide phonebook polling (for service discovery), and transmit in-call multimedia.
It is marketed under the names RCS, Advanced Messaging, Advanced Communications, joyn, and Message+.
The Rich Communication Suite (RCS) industry initiative was formed by a group of industry promoters in 2007. In February 2008 the GSM Association officially became the project ‘home’ of RCS and an RCS steering committee was established by the organisation.
The scope of the steering committee’s work was to entail the definition, testing, and integration of the services in the application suite known as RCS. Three years later, the RCS project released a new specification – RCS-e (e = ‘enhanced’), which included various iterations of the original RCS specifications. The GSMA program is now called Rich Communication Services.
The GSMA published the Universal Profile in November 2016. The Universal Profile is a globally agreed, single GSMA specification for advanced communications. Carriers that deploy the Universal Profile guarantee interconnection with other carriers. 47 mobile network operators, 11 manufacturers, and 2 OS providers (Google and Microsoft) have announced their support. Google's Jibe Cloud platform is an implementation of the RCS Universal Profile, designed to help carriers launch RCS quickly and scale easily. Google supports RCS on Android devices with the Android Messages app. The Jibe RCS cloud service partners with Sprint, Rogers, Telenor, and Vodafone; Orange, Deutsche Telekom, and Globe are committed to the service.
RCS combines different services defined by 3GPP and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) with an enhanced phonebook. Another phone's capabilities and presence information can be discovered and displayed by a mobile phone. RCS reuses 3GPP specified IMS core system as the underlying service platform taking care of issues such as authentication, authorization, registration, charging and routing.
Universal Profile RCS has had one release, and currently has one scheduled:
Prior to Universal Profile, five releases of the RCS specifications were made. Each release expanded the scope of its predecessor.
The following standardized services are a part of the specifications of RCS:
The GSMA defined a series of specific implementations of the RCS specifications. The RCS specifications often define a number of options for implementing individual communications features, resulting in challenges in delivering interoperable services between carriers. The RCS specifications aim to define a more specific implementation that promote standardization and simplify interconnection between carriers.
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