Mobile Advanced Messaging Features Might Bring You Back To Texting

But most carriers won’t let you send large video files by text, or let you see real-time delivery status of a recently sent text.

In a blog post, T-Mobile US CTO Neville Ray said the T-Mobile Advanced Messaging service includes one-on-one and group messaging that is conducted in “near” real-time; the ability to see when others are typing, when a message is delivered and read; the ability to share high-resolution photos and videos up to 10 megabytes in size; and works “across all devices, makers and operating systems – and wireless operators”. This is largely thanks to Advanced Messaging being built on Rich Communications Services standard, a GSMA messaging standard that other carriers may adopt in the future. The best thing yet is users won’t have to download a new app, as the Advanced Messaging services will kick in automatically once their device is upgraded.

RCS is the carrier-run alternative.

But the Un-carrier’s about to change all that. Sprint also half-heartedly offered an RCS-compatible downloadable third-party client in 2013, at which point wireless analyst Dean Bubley termed RCS “an undead Zombie technology… we’ve still got a few lonely operators kicking over its rotting corpse at the moment”. Sprint alone has approximately 57 million customers, nearly all of whom use text messaging. Here’s a list of affordable new devices launching in T-Mobile stores and online today. Instead of looking to the past with SMS and MMS, however, Advanced Messaging takes some cues from modern messaging services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, and even Apple’s iMessage.

T-Mobile’s RCS will be quite different, because it will be the default.

You don’t need me to tell you a phone isn’t just a phone anymore. T-Mobile’s new feature is based off a standard that works for any carrier, so hopefully the other big networks will get onboard as well.