Samsung has adopted Google Messages as the default messaging app on its smartphones worldwide, aiming to simplify RCS (Rich Communication Services) availability and functionality. With RCS, users can access features like high-quality media sharing, read receipts, and better chat functionality, moving Android’s messaging experience closer to popular platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp.
To further enhance this experience, Google is now testing a feature in Google Messages that allows users to choose image quality when sending photos, drawing inspiration from WhatsApp’s image options.
In the latest beta version of Google Messages, users have two choices for image quality: “Optimize For Chat (HD)” and “Original Quality (HD+).” The “Optimize For Chat” option compresses images, making them quicker to send, while the “Original Quality” option maintains the full resolution, albeit at a potentially slower transfer rate and higher data usage. This added control helps users balance quality with efficiency, depending on their needs and data limits.
To make it clear which option is selected, Google Messages places an “HD” or “HD+” logo on the images, helping users understand the quality of the image they are sending or receiving. While this functionality mimics WhatsApp’s image quality settings, there is a difference: WhatsApp’s HD option optimizes images to 12MP, whereas the default resolution for non-HD is 720p. This difference in approach highlights Google Messages’ focus on delivering images at even higher fidelity if users choose the “Original Quality” option.
Despite Google Messages potentially offering higher image quality than WhatsApp, RCS adoption remains limited compared to WhatsApp’s extensive user base. Google and Samsung hope the RCS feature set will make it more appealing to Android users, but RCS is still not as widely used across Android devices. Expanding RCS adoption could bring more Android users on board and boost engagement with these new features.
The future of RCS could shift further if Apple fully embraces it on iPhones. Although iOS 18 has been released, Apple has yet to enable RCS on all carriers globally. If Apple were to activate RCS worldwide, it would significantly improve messaging between Android and iPhone users, making cross-platform messaging more seamless and potentially establishing RCS as a universal messaging standard.
