What is RCS messaging? Everything you need to know about the SMS successor

“A replacement for SMS and MMS messaging, rich communication services (RCS) is a protocol that is overseen by the GSM Association and functions like WhatsApp and other popular chat apps. Backed by Google, it has become a popular tool across Android devices and is now embraced by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
SMS (Short Message Service) still gets plenty of love from the public with some 781 billion text messages sent every month and more than 9.3 trillion texts per year in the United States
A partnership between Google and Samsung allows RCS features to work seamlessly between the Samsung Messages and Android Messages apps, the default SMS apps on their devices.
Chat is not just another Android messaging app: It’s the friendly name for the RCS protocol or RCS Universal Profile. Chat is available only on two apps: Android Messages and Samsung Messages.”