Is SMS on the verge of extinction?

SMS, a service of the same age as the first mobile phones to appear, extremely useful in certain situations, continues to exist and is currently used by a significant number of mobile phone owners. This is despite the unprecedented evolution in this field, simple phones becoming in the last years real pocket computers, sometimes almost as powerful even as desktop computers.

Indeed, as access to the Internet through mobile networks tends to become somewhat commonplace for many of us, we no longer use SMS as often as we did a few years ago when it was one of the fastest and most convenient ways. of comunication. The relatively small number of characters that an SMS allows as well as the numerous facilities offered by online messaging applications (Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WhatsApp and many others) make us wonder how long it will be before the traditional text message becomes a memory. .

The moment of the disappearance of the SMS could be closer than we think if we take into account the steps taken by the online giant Google lately. It intends to create a GSMA communications service somewhat similar to SMS, but with additional functions for Android phones. This service is called RCS (Rich Communication Services) and will bring functions such as group messaging, voice calls over IP or even file transfer, functions that are supposed to be able to be used from one mobile network to another.

To implement the RCS service, Google collaborates with numerous global and regional mobile operators such as América Móvil, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Deutsche Telekom, Globe Telecom, Millicom, Orange, Sprint, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telstra, Turkcell, Vodafone etc.

Operators have agreed to make the transition to a universal profile based on GSMA's RCS specifications and the RCS client on Android, provided by Google in collaboration with mobile phone manufacturers, according to a press release from MWC (Mobile World Congress) from Barcelona.

In the opinion of some, the move made by Google is somewhat late considering the level at which messaging platforms are currently. WhatsApp, for example, has recently exceeded the threshold of one billion monthly active users, but Facebook Messenger is not far from these figures either. If we also take into account the fact that these applications run on all operating systems currently used on mobile phones (Android, iOS, Windows, etc.), we tend to agree with those who think that Google waited a little too long and we wonder how successful this initiative will be.