Google is offering RCS messaging without the carrier in the middle. What does that mean for me?

Google does a lot of things well. Services and products like Search, Android, or Chrome are examples of how Google has taken an idea from a meeting room and put it into everyone’s hands and things were made better because of them. Remember Yahoo! or Ask Jeeves?

Messaging has been the thorn in Google’s side for years.

Messaging is not one of the areas where Google has found the right answer, though. That’s not to say the company doesn’t have the right idea — rich chat services complete with media and all the flair people want for free — it just hasn’t been able to find the one way to offer the total package.

Making Android Messages a full RCS client was a good first step. RCS can give much of the iMessage or WhatsApp experience to your texts, but to do so, it relies on carrier support. And you know how difficult it can be to get just the big four carriers in the U.S. to agree, let alone the whole world. Taking control and applying a bit of the “do it yourself” philosophy…