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Google Voice is laying the groundwork for RCS chats
We don’t know how long it will take, but there’s now some hope.
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Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- The latest version of the Google Voice app includes multiple clues about RCS messaging support.
- Google Voice currently supports only standard SMS and MMS across all plans, contrasting with some of Google’s own apps.
- It’s still too early to say when RCS support will be officially enabled in Google Voice, but these are encouraging signs.
Popular VoIP app Google Voice is laying the groundwork for RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging, we can exclusively reveal. Google Voice users are currently limited to standard SMS and MMS, a glaring limitation at a time when multiple apps, including Google Messages, already support RCS messaging. It looks like the company may finally fix this in a forthcoming update.
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Looking at version 2026.11.01.10 of Google Voice, we uncovered evidence suggesting RCS support is coming to the service. One of the strings we found specifically references the ability to toggle RCS chats.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
We’re also getting a look at other strings that mention more RCS-related actions, as shown in the screenshot below.
Lastly, another string tells us that an RCS label would appear in the compose box, similar to existing labels for SMS and MMS.
<string name="message_send_button_rcs">RCS</string>The fact that RCS messaging isn’t supported on Google Voice already has baffledmanyusers over the years, including our very own.
It finally looks like Google is taking steps to address this missing feature, although it’s difficult to say when that may happen. Since we only have references in the app’s code and no actual visuals, it could be a while before RCS messaging goes live in Google Voice.
There’s also the chance that Google may not implement it, though we hope that’s not the case. Bringing RCS support to Google Voice messaging would finally enable end-to-end encryption, read receipts, and high-resolution media sharing, among other benefits.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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