Beginning next year, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will all support RCS Chat, the next generation text messaging standard (designed to replace SMS), by preloading Android Messages as the default texting app on all Android phones. Verizon was the last of the big three US carriers to get on board. The big remaining question is whether Apple will support RCS, within iMessage and offer interoperability.
RCS improves SMS by offering all the features we're familiar with from iMessage and Whatsapp: end-to-end encryption, improved images, video, read receipts, typing indication, and group chats. Link
