https://wccftech.com/galaxy-note-9-and-note-8-get-rcs-support-on-t-mobile/

One of the main reasons that long-time iOS users refuse to move over to Android is iMessage. Apple’s messaging solution is light years ahead of the stock messaging app on Android and on par with industry leaders such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Android Messages, on the other hand, still relies on SMS and lacks a lot of critical features that are essential. The prospect of paying money to send a string of text might is absurd at this point, and it’s time for SMS to die.

We all know how Google’s in-house messaging solution ended up, and at this point, it doesn’t look like they’re even trying. Instead, the company is shifting focus on Android Messages and trying to bring it on par with iMessage via RCS. With RCS, you get features such as group chat, high-res photo sharing, read receipts and the likes with the notable exception of end-to-end encryption—a feature that’ll continue to remain absent for the foreseeable future.