RCS messaging is meant to be the next evolution of SMS, bringing a variety of nifty features to the table to rival Apple’s iMessage. But the truth is that many carriers around the world are dragging their feet in implementing the feature.
Now, a tutorial on reddit has shown users how to enable RCS on almost any smartphone, regardless of carrier. It’s worth noting however that RCS doesn’t apparently support dual-SIM phones though.
In any event, the solution requires the Android Messages beta, and Activity Launcher app. Once you’ve got those apps, you should then turn off Wi-Fi and follow the reported steps listed below.
How to enable RCS messaging on your phone
- Open Activity Launcher
- Tap Recent Activities, and in the menu choose All Activities
- Look for Android Messages
- Tap it, then scroll until you find Set RCS Flags (com.google.android.apps.messaging.ui.appsettings.rcs.overrides.OverrideFlagsActivity)
- After pressing it select ACS Url and in the menu select http://rcs-acs-prod-us.sandbox.google.com/
- Follow setup in Android Messages. Will take around three minutes. If it doesn’t work, continue reading
- Clear the data of Carrier Services and force stop Android Messages
- Repeat steps 1-4
- Select OTP Pattern, and in the menu click, Your\sMessenger\sverification\scode\sis\sG-(\d{6})
Once this procedure is completed, you can check out Settings > Chat Features > Status to verify that RCS messaging is actually enabled. The status should be “connected” if everything works out well.
It’s not a lengthy procedure in practice, and it doesn’t require root access or anything like that. In saying so, I was unable to enable RCS messaging on my Huawei Mate 20 Pro on the Cell C network here in South Africa (it seems to be enabled on my Galaxy S8 on Vodacom). My colleague Jimmy Westenberg was able to get his Pixel 4 XL working with RCS on T-Mobile. Additionally, Users around the world are reporting success via this method, ranging from the US and the Netherlands to Denmark and Algeria.
RCS is the next generation of text messaging, delivering high-quality image sharing, typing indicators, location sharing, group chats, and video calls. Carriers have been slow to adopt the standard though, making for a frustrating roll-out. Nevertheless, it’s still a rather cool addition to smartphones, even if it’s essentially duplicating functionality seen in popular IM apps.
Have you tried this solution to get RCS messaging? Let us know how it went in the comments section!
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