You Can Now RCS Yourself in Google Messages (and You Should)
There is no shortage of ways to write down ideas these days. Your phone comes with a notes app out of the box, and the app store is full of alternatives if you’re looking for any number of features or benefits.
But often the best way to keep track of thoughts, photos, or anything else is to write to yourself. If you don’t usually text yourself, this might seem a little strange. Why should you write to yourself ? I’ll get to it soon. But first, let’s discuss the latest app for proper messaging: Google Messages.
Send yourself a message via RCS using Google Messages.
As reported by Android Authority , the latest beta version of Google Messages now offers users the ability to send themselves text messages via RCS. According to editor Seeareeff , this feature also works in the stable version of the application. Google Messages already allows you to send text messages to yourself, but only via SMS. This may not seem like a big change, but it is. SMS is inferior to RCS in almost every way, as you would expect from a messaging protocol invented in 1992 .
By opening up this feature to RCS, Google Messages now allows you to send yourself longer messages, as well as high-quality photos and videos. SMS made it impossible to quickly save media using Google Messages because it compressed images and videos ( especially videos). Removing these restrictions means Google Messages users will be able to enjoy a privilege that other users have enjoyed on other platforms for years.
However, the biggest downside is that RCS messages are still not encrypted for you—at least according to Android Authority. This is generally the big advantage of RCS over SMS, and why security experts recommend messaging using the former rather than the latter. The lack of encryption isn’t a big deal, especially if you’re using the service to link to innocuous thoughts and media, but it’s something to keep in mind. You probably shouldn’t send yourself any particularly personal or confidential messages through Google Messages.
How to message yourself using RCS in Google Messages
If this feature is already enabled on your end, you won’t have to do anything differently. Just write to yourself! You should see that the message arrived as RCS and not as SMS.
However, if not, you may have to sign up for the Google Messages beta to try it out early. You can go to the Google Messages Play Store page , click “Become a Tester” and follow the onscreen instructions to sign up for the beta.
Why write to yourself?
Google Messages joins the collection of apps that make it easy to message yourself and get good results. This includes iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Facebook Messenger – basically any messaging platform that allows you to send unlimited messages with high-quality media.
For many, the best thing about texting is simply the convenience. You probably spend a significant amount of time on your phone in one of these messaging apps, which means you can easily switch from one conversation to a private chat with yourself. If someone brings up an issue in one of your conversations that you want to save for later, you can quickly send that message to yourself.
It’s also a great way to sync messages and media across devices. If you have access to a messaging app on your phone, tablet, or even computer, you can access these thoughts and objects from any of your devices. All of these individual messages are also timestamped, so you know exactly when each one was sent. I wish Apple’s Notes app did just that: while you can see when a note was created and last edited, you can’t see a history of what was added and when. If you send a message to yourself, you can see exactly when each message was created.
However, the lack of end-to-end encryption is really a bummer. If you like the idea of sending text messages yourself, but want to make sure your notes and media are protected, you might want to consider using an encrypted platform like Signal for the task. Using a platform like this, you can send yourself a photo of your Social Security card—as long as no one has physical access to your device, you’ll be safe.