Google starts its RCS rollout in the UK

Google’s RCS Messaging rollout in the UK has begun. While Google announced earlier this week that the rollout would begin sometime “this month”, users have been reporting sightings of Google Chat in their messaging app all week.

On the one hand, while Google’s RCS messaging service is a genuinely good one — the choice of the US and France as test beds seems odd. RCS’ services have already been replicated by WhatsApp and Messenger which are more universally used then SMS and iMessage, especially in these two regions.

The piecemeal nature of the rollout might also backfire as users could try it out, notice half their contacts don’t have it, and then drop it forever.

Google Chat is available in the Android Messages app on any Android device.