As a long-time SMS user, getting widespread RCS support is the biggest future mobile phone innovation I am looking forward to.<p>SMS is wonderful because you can send a message to any  mobile phone user regardless of their nationality, operating system, hardware, carrier, etc.  However it has a few major flaws: cost, speed, lack of group messaging, limited multimedia support.<p>The shortcomings of SMS have fueled the rise of IP messenger apps like WhatsApp, Line, WeChat, Hangouts, and iMessage.  These all have the features we want, but their major flaw are arguably even more severe: total lock-in and lack of interoperability.  Once you have a majority of your communication networks on one of those protocols, you become dependent on a single for-profit company for your communication.  Look at what happens to iOS users trying to switch to Android: iMessage blocks their communication for months afterward.<p>RCS will give us all the benefits of iMessage or WhatsApp but without being locked in to a single company&#x27;s network or having to get all of your friends&#x2F;family to adopt one or the other.