Bell Launches Is Own Take on RCS Messaging in Canada

Tech giants from across the globe have been teaming up with the cellphone’s industry governing bodies in order to develop a modern take on texting known as – Rich Communication Services (RCS).

Despite the limitations of SMS – which include lack of read receipts, group messaging, animated stickers and dependence on roaming – text messaging still remains incredibly popular with users across the globe. That’s why tech giants want to upgrade the SMS experience to RCS.

And Bell is taking the first steps to do so in Canada by introducing Advanced Messaging. At launch, the RCS messaging experience will be available for Bell subscribers who are holding on a Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, but also the Galaxy Note 8 (when it becomes available obviously).

If you’re a Bell customer here’s what to expect from the new texting standard:

• Enhanced delivery notifications – shows if a message was sent, received, read or when the other person is typing.
• Longer messages and group chat – messages can be up to 8,000 characters and group chats up to 100 participants.
• File transfers – supports higher-resolution pictures, longer videos and additional file types, such as PDF, XLS and ZIP files.
• One messaging inbox and conversation history – combines all Advanced Messaging, SMS and MMS messages with the same contact in one convenient conversation view.

[Bell]