There is a wider strategy at play. Messaging is expected to become the next internet front-end, in many ways replacing apps and websites. Facebook has made over $20B of investment in that space because it acknowledges that and is preparing for it.

Right now, Google and Apple more or less own your smartphone experience. They control and benefit from the apps (through the app stores) and websites (through the browser) you use. If much of this use goes to OTT messaging apps they don’t control (FB, Whatsapp) then FB just took away their prized platforms. They have to fight back.

For Google, getting the carriers on its side in this fight is brilliant. The bottom line is that Google wants to have its own chat eco-system and as it’s not been successful in launching any consumer product from the ground up for a long time, carriers can really help. etc.

I think Google is trying to *steal* RCS, not support it.

It could be its equivalent to iMessage, plus also enable free messaging to/from contact centres and applications to Androids. It’s aimed at Apple, Microsoft & Twilio.

Google will also know it’s a complete dud as a “rich” service – there’s no way it’s going to reclaim fans of the cooler apps like SnapChat or Instagram or WeChat or whatever thing teenagers are using this week. It’s a basic messaging service for text & the occasional picture. It might get some usage back from WhatsApp in markets with no iPhones – but it will almost certainly be free Android-to-Android, and may not even be visible to telcos at all.

My take: I’ve been RCS’s fiercest critic. I think it’s still dead – a zombie technology from 7 years ago. But Google might have found a way to profit from grave-robbing, by turning it into Android’s equivalent of iMessage (and maybe Skype/Twilio)

I think this is about *free* basic messaging to, from and between Androids. http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/google-buying-jibe-mobile-is-aimed-at.html

It’s not about mobile carriers, it’s certainly not about “fighting back” against so-called OTTs like Instagram or WhatsApp or WeChat. Ultimately the service itself is still pretty much a dud – but the industry has decided that it should be implemented natively. I think Google is going to subvert this and make it a free feature rather than a “service”.