Vodafone is closing RCS messages

Vodafone will pull the plug on its RCS app in the coming days, alerting customers who check out now.

a message For some Vodafone customers this week is telling customers that the carrier will be discontinuing the RCS app from March 31, 2023. With the change, customers will no longer have the RCS service that Vodafone provides, with messages sent instead via SMS and MMS. Vodafone adds MMS packages to affected customer accounts for 60 days to avoid additional charges.

Important information: From 31st March 2023 Vodafone will no longer be providing your RCS. You will still be able to send messages, but they will be SMS or MMS messages. We’ve added an MMS package to your account for 60 days – so you can keep sending MMS at no extra charge until you switch to the new RCS.

The discontinuation of Vodafone’s RCS setup comes as a result of a new wide-ranging deal between Vodafone and Google announced in late February. The deal saw Vodafone adopt Google’s app for the remote control system, like US carriers, along with increased marketing of Pixel devices.

on Support pageVodafone details how customers will be affected by turning off RCS, and the short version is that almost no one he have To stop using RCS with this change.

For customers who have already installed Google Messages on their device and set it as the default SMS app, RCS will be reactivated within 72 hours where a pop-up will appear to activate and accept Google’s RCS terms and conditions.

For customers with Samsung devices who are still using the Samsung Messages app (which can handle RCS via the Vodaphone app), there are two paths. The first is to simply download Google Messages and set it as the default app. Otherwise, an update is expected “sometime after April 1” that will bring RCS from Google to Samsung’s Messages app. This will only be necessary if the user also owns an older Samsung smartwatch, which required the Samsung Messages app to use certain functions on the watch.

For customers with devices launched before 2020, Vodafone says customers will simply need to download the Google Messages app. from the Play Store.

The main loss here will be Huawei devices, which will no longer be able to use RCS at all if they run HarmonyOS, which is a fork of Android. It is because these devices lack the Google Play Store and hence cannot use Google Messages.