Google acquires Jibe Mobile in an effort to commit to the Rich Communications Services standard

One of the main reasons why third-party messaging applications are so popular around the world is because standard text messaging through mobile carriers is so lacking in the features department. Group chatting, sending high resolution photos and the ability to see when the other party has read a message are all points of contention with standard text messaging, which is why Google is committing to a new standard called Rich Communications Services (RCS) to help change that.

As part of the big commitment to adopt the RCS standard, Google has announced that the company is acquiring Jibe Mobile, a messaging startup that’s been a leader in the RCS standard ever since it was founded in 2006. Jibe’s main goal now is to help carriers easily deploy RCS to their users, which should help make a big impact on carrier messaging in the future.

Google explains:

Many leaders in the wireless industry have already put great work into laying the foundation for RCS, and we’ve heard from many of them that there are ways Android can help. We’re excited to team up with mobile operators, device makers and the rest of the Android ecosystem to support RCS standards and help accelerate their deployment in a more consistent way. We’re already working closely with many of our partners on implementing RCS, and look forward to growing the RCS ecosystem together.

Deploying RCS for Android devices will certainly take a long time, but it’s still really great to see Google get started on this new initiative.