Turning off RCS? Google Messages will soon warn you about your group chats (APK teardown)

RCS has long been touted as an upgrade over SMS, and the service is poised to attract a slew of new users once iPhones also get on the RCS bandwagon through stable iOS 18 releases. With this, it becomes even more important for users to understand that they have RCS messaging switched on and what they stand to lose when they toggle it off. Google Messages is taking a step in that direction with some new warnings that are displayed to users when they switch off RCS.

When you turn off RCS and keep it disabled for 30 days, you will be removed from any RCS group chats you are a part of. This isn’t common knowledge per se, so there’s a chance that some people will be caught off guard.

On the latest Google Messages beta, Google has a warning screen that lets you know what you stand to lose when you switch off RCS. The warning screen now explicitly mentions that you will be removed from all RCS group chats after 30 days when you turn off RCS.

If you have forgotten to disable RCS, Google provides a quick way to deregister from its RCS service. Deregistering immediately removes you from group chats, so you can consider it a way to exit all groups intentionally (though you will lose all other RCS benefits, too).

Why would you want to turn off RCS in the first place, though, you ask? That is because one should turn it off when switching phones, especially when migrating between Android and iOS (in either direction). If you don’t disable RCS before you switch, and RCS isn’t enabled on the new phone yet, the RCS messages you receive could potentially keep going to your old phone. You can re-enable RCS on your new phone to ensure you receive messages on the new phone from that point forward.