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One carrier is responsible for most RCS messages in the US (Update: Not so fast?)
May 16, 2025
- T-Mobile has confirmed to Android Authority that 613 million RCS messages are sent over its network each day in the US.
- This comes shortly after Google announced that over one billion RCS messages are sent daily in the US.
- T-Mobile has since clarified Google and its own messaging figures.
Update: May 20, 2025 (01:00 AM ET): T-Mobile has contacted us to clarify Google and its own RCS messaging figures. This comes after Google reported that over a billion RCS messages are sent each day in the US. It also follows our original follow-up article, seen below.
T-Mobile issued the following clarification to Android Authority:
Google is only reporting its Google Jibe RCS messages of which T-Mobile customers are sending 383M on average every day.
What does that mean? Well, T-Mobile initially launched RCS using its own servers, but announced a transition to Google’s Jibe servers way back in 2018. You’d think this means the vast majority of the carrier’s messages would, therefore, be sent via Google’s servers. However, it evidently seems like a significant chunk of messages are still sent via its own platform.
It’s also worth noting that Google didn’t specifically clarify that its one billion RCS messages figure referred to messages via its own Jibe platform. If confirmed, this means that way more than one billion RCS messages are sent in the US each day.
Original article: May 16, 2025 (6:30 AM ET): Google announced earlier this week that over one billion RCS messages are sent in the US each day. Now, it turns out that one carrier is responsible for the majority of these messages.
T-Mobile revealed RCS usage on its network in an emailed response to Android Authority questions:
So far, in 2025 T-Mobile customers are sending an average of 613M RCS messages per day.
T-Mobile clarified that this figure includes a “small percentage” of MVNOs. That means operators like Mint Mobile, Google Fi, and Metro are included.
The company also explained that T-Mobile and MVNO customers in the US sent a daily average of 224.5 million RCS messages in 2020. So this latest figure represents a nearly three-fold increase since then. Either way, it’s clear that T-Mobile accounts for more than half of all RCS messages in the US.
RCS is a more modern messaging standard than SMS. It enables high-quality media sharing, typing indicators, location sharing, and other features. These messages are also sent over mobile data or Wi-Fi. RCS got a major shot in the arm last year when Apple adopted it for iMessage chats with Android-toting users.