Research agency: SMS successor RCS has 930 million active users

The SMS successor RCS has 930 million active users this year, reports research agency Juniper Research. The technology does not work on iPhones, but it does work on many Android phones.

The number of RCS users will exceed one billion next year claims Juniper. Years after its introduction, RCS is still nowhere near the popularity that SMS once had. At its peak, virtually all cell phone owners used the messaging standard. It also worked on all available telephones.

This does not apply to RCS. RCS support is available on Samsung Galaxy phones and the Google Messages app, among others. Many providers also support the technology. It is not available on iPhones, probably because Apple has its own iMessage service. RCS has been around for more than ten years, but has only gained many users in recent years, because Google was looking for a competitor for iMessage for Android.