This won’t be thrilling if you prefer an alternative app (like the one from your phone manufacturer), but it might be worthwhile for the benefits when you’re chatting with other RCS users. You can chat over WiFi, send high-quality media, see when people are typing and get read receipts. You can also easily manage and rename group chats.

There is a caveat: RCS doesn’t support end-to-end encryption like Apple’s iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Signal or similar services. Google has promised that it will only store messages while they’re in transit, but the truly privacy-conscious won’t want to use RCS for anything particularly sensitive. RCS is more an upgrade to SMS than its own messaging service, and that means dealing with similar privacy risks.