Wear OS could soon send let you send RCS messages (APK teardown)

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

RCS is back in the limelight these days, thanks to Apple’s rollout of iOS 18, which enabled iPhone users to send and receive RCS messages. Android users have been able to send RCS messages through their phones for a while now thanks to Google’s efforts with Google Messages, but you can’t say the same for Wear OS smartwatches. If you leave your phone behind, you won’t be able to send any messages to other users through your smartwatch. This could soon change as Google is working on bringing standalone RCS capabilities to Wear OS smartwatches through a Google Messages app update.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

Google Messages v20240926 beta has added some flags that indicate standalone RCS is coming to Wear OS smartwatches.

In the above flags, “bugle” is likely the codename for Google Messages, “wear” likely refers to Wear OS, and “standalone” means independent. Two of the flags are for enabling RCS and its settings, while there is one for enabling voice messages. Thus, it is reasonably straightforward to conclude that standalone RCS is coming to Wear OS smartwatches.

If this feature is indeed coming, it would be a significant change from the current situation. While RCS on Android smartphones has been celebrated, RCS through smartwatches is understandably an afterthought due to the relatively smaller user base interested in the feature.

Currently, the Google Messages app on Wear OS smartwatches essentially mirrors the Google Messages app on your phone. RCS messages you send from your watch are routed through your phone, and losing connection with the phone means the smartwatch cannot send or receive RCS messages. This is the case for both Wi-Fi and LTE smartwatches. You cannot send or receive RCS messages from your Wear OS smartwatch independent of your phone, as the watch presumably doesn’t maintain its own standalone connection with RCS servers.

With this presumed change, your Wear OS smartwatch will be able to independently connect to RCS servers, allowing you to send RCS messages without having your phone around. We’re not quite sure if standalone RCS on Wear OS will be available for both Wi-Fi and LTE smartwatches, but it likely will be since you only need an active data connection and not a phone line for an RCS message. At the end of the day, we hope RCS will work closer to how instant messaging apps like WhatsApp work on Wear OS, giving you the flexibility to leave your phone behind.

Standalone RCS on Wear OS smartwatches is not currently available. We’ll let you know whenever the feature goes live.

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