T-Mobile Switches to Google’s Jibe for RCS Messaging

Switching gears on the RCS chatter today, let’s now talk about something good in the world of upgraded messaging – T-Mobile is switching to Google’s Jibe platform! Hey, that’s great.

While we know that Apple will likely never adopt RCS, T-Mobile is taking a step towards making your Android RCS experiences better. In an announcement on Twitter, T-Mobile says that changing over to Jibe for RCS means “customers will get all new features instantly and have a better experience messaging with businesses thanks to Rich Business Messaging (RBM).”

Forget that RBM part, because none of us want to message with businesses, what it really means is that as Google introduces new features or upgrades or technologies through Jibe, T-Mobile customers with supported Android phones will get those features. And that’s great, as this platform (hopefully) grows and improves.

You may recall that AT&T announced a similar move in June of this year and Google said almost word-for-word what T-Mobile said above. The big idea is that by being on Google’s platform, the features come flowing instantly.

T-Mobile did not announce which phones would switch over to Jibe or when you might notice the switch, unfortunately. In fact, they provided no specifics at all on this news, only that they are “now” powering RCS by Google’s Jibe. We assume that means for all Android phones now, rather than through their old RCS platform.

If you would like to check to see if your phone is running on Jibe for RCS, open the Google Messages app, tap on your profile (top right), then Message Settings>RCS chats and scroll to the bottom. You should see a message like the one below that reads “RCS from Google is provided by Jibe Mobile.” If it doesn’t say that, it’s probably best to assume it’s T-Mobile’s own RCS platform.

Apple, eyeing this news, chuckles in blue bubbles.