Google Messages is fixing this glaring RCS issue (APK teardown)

You could finally be able to send pics without them getting compressed to hell and back.

Google Messages is fixing this glaring RCS issue (APK teardown)
  • Google Messages may soon finally support higher-quality image transfers over RCS.
  • Right now, iPhone (beta) users can send high-res pics to their Android friends on Messages, but it doesn’t work the other way around.
  • New compression and resizing options tailored specifically for RCS appear to be in the works.

Change is coming to how we message each other, and with rich communication services (RCS) finally starting to take off, the dream of high-quality messaging across platforms may soon be a reality. But the road there hasn’t been a journey without some bumps along the way, and just the other week we were warning you about a serious problem with Google Messages and how it handles sending photos over RCS. Thankfully, it appears that Google is already on the case, working on a solution.

One of the real strengths of RCS is how it’s built for modern networks that can handle a little data, and doesn’t shy away from supporting big file attachments. In theory, that should really enrich our chats, as we’re able to share high-quality imagery with ease. Unfortunately, most Android users access RCS through Google Messages, and that app has a very bad habit of both extremely aggressive image resizing and image recompressing — in one of our tests, Messages shrunk a 50MP, 6MB image down to just a 1.9MP, 147kB shadow of its former self.