The Universal Profile 2.7 was released at the end of last month and discovered by the folks at reddit who follow all the happenings with RCS (Rich Communication Service). This update to 2.7 brings a bunch of standardizations to RCS messaging, which is meaningful in a space that Apple is about to officially join and that seems to be more prevalent in messaging circles on Android.
Again, the Universal Profile reddit crew found the new 2.7 update and shared important bits yesterday. They pulled a big chunk from the “New features and procedures” section that essentially clears up all that is new.
But before we get there, here’s an important paragraph from the GSMA that broadly explains the point of this 2.7 release:
Compared to their previous version(s) they bring support for more engaging messaging experiences such as reactions to messages and the user editing a message that they sent earlier and for better handing of messages considered as spam. Next to that they advance the business messaging experience through the support of a chatbot gallery and better indications of what types of responses a business messaging sender supports and improve the overall security of the RCS channel.
The first portion there is the most important, as it describes a more engaging experience throughout RCS messaging. That appears to mean standards for reactions to messages, the ability to edit, recall, and delete a message, and improved spam reporting, no matter the messaging client. There’s also some stuff about chatbots, but that’s mostly related to business messaging, a thing we try to avoid at all costs. No one wants that spam in their message inbox.
Below, we’ve pulled the bullets on the new messaging stuff (full document):
- Messaging
- Extended Messaging: enabling Replies and Reactions (including Custom Reactions) to sent and received messages and, for the message sender, to Edit, Recall and Delete message that they sent earlier for themselves and the message recipient (section 3.2.8)
- Extend Spam Reporting to person to person messaging (section 3.2.9.1)
- Indication of messages considered suspicious from the Terminating Network to the RCS client (section 3.2.9.2)
- Chatbots
- Indication whether a Chatbot accepts user-generated content (section 3.6.4.1.6)
- Chatbot Gallery (section 3.6.1 and A.1.3)
Improvements to RCS, you love to seem ’em. Well, assuming everyone who needs to adopt the Universal Profile 2.7 does so in a speedy manner.