A couple of weeks back, Google revealed its plan for the future of messaging on Android. After a spate of failed attempts to capture the Instant Messaging market with its proprietary apps, Google decided to place its bets on RCS (Rich Communication Services) – a successor to the ubiquitous SMS but with all the bells and whistles of the modern IM apps. Unlike other Instant Messaging apps from Google, RCS is a standard that can be baked into any messaging app for interoperability.
For RCS to be successful, many players in the industry have to come together and back it. So far, many carriers, OEMs, and OS developers (Google, Microsoft), etc. have expressed their support for RCS. Samsung is one of the OEMs who pledged to support RCS by updating its default Messages app to work with the new messaging standard. A few leaked screenshots today give us a sneak peek into one of the RCS features in Samsung’s Messages app.
One of the features of RCS
XDA-Developers have obtained few screenshots of the Messages app in the leaked AT&T Galaxy S9 firmware with the May security patch, and they point to the impending launch of the chatbot support in Samsung’s default messaging app. The premise behind these chatbots is to help users in shopping, travel, news, and more by allowing them to communicate by automated bots with businesses within the messaging app. The functionality and purpose are similar to the chatbots on Skype, Facebook Messenger, etc.
Installing the leaked firmware seems to be enough to gain access to the chatbots. Currently, 1-800-Flowers Assistant, 385Scores, CNN, HereWeGo Chat, JustAnswers 24-7 Experts, SkyScanner, SnapTravel, Style Inspire, Walgreens, etc. have employed chatbots to assist their customers. As RCS begins to roll out widely, you can expect the number of chatbots to grow substantially.
Though the leaked screenshots are from the AT&T Galaxy S9 firmware, other carrier variants shouldn’t be far behind considering Google’s plan for RCS rollout this year. We cannot independently confirm, but AT&T seems to have released few chatbots for Samsung devices in March itself. All of this looks like beta-testing by various industry partners before officially launching RCS widely.
Let us know in the comments section if you have come across any chatbots in your SMS messaging app.
