Wear OS watches might soon be able to send RCS messages without your phone's help

Google has been pressing Apple to adopt RCS for years and even when Cupertino relented (perhaps when it became clear that the EU would get involved), Google still had the audacity to poke fun at Apple. But maybe Google should be focusing on its own garden instead of trying to be humorous.

Did you know that Wear OS smartwatches with LTE cannot send RCS messages? Well, they can’t – RCS messaging from the watch only works when it is connected to a phone. That will change with an upcoming update to the Messages app.

In a teardown of Google Messages v20240926 beta, the Android Authority team discovered some flags that are laying the groundwork for standalone operation of RCS messaging on Wear OS watches.

bugle.enable_wear_standalone_rcs
bugle.enable_wear_standalone_rcs_settings
bugle.enable_wear_standalone_voice_message

Note: “bugle” is the internal name for Google Messages.

By the looks of it, the watches will be able to handle not only standard text messages, but also voice messages sent over RCS. This means that you will get to keep rich messaging when you leave your phone at home (assuming you have an LTE-enabled watch, of course).

It’s not clear whether this update will help non-LTE watches – this can make a difference in cases when the watch loses connection with your phone but is still connected to Wi-Fi. We’ll have to wait and see.

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