Pixel 4 won’t support RCS messaging on Verizon or T-Mobile at launch

Ben Schoon | Oct 18 2019 - 6:10 am PT

The rollout of RCS messaging has been an absolute mess – to the point where Google is actually taking things over from carriers. Now, there’s more bad news. Google’s Pixel 4 won’t support RCS on Verizon or T-Mobile when it launches next week.

So far, Verizon and T-Mobile have been some of the bigger proponents of RCS in the United States, but even their rollouts have been incredibly limited. Verizon, for example, only supports the Pixel 3 and the Galaxy S9. Unfortunately, Verizon won’t be extending that support to Pixel 4.

Confirmed on Twitter this week, Verizon mentions that the Pixel 4 won’t support RCS on the carrier at launch. That’s a bit strange considering the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL both supported the standard. Still, it does seem likely that Verizon will support the Pixel 4 over time.

Beyond Verizon, Pixel 4 won’t have RCS support on T-Mobile either. Another tweet from this week comes from T-Mobile and says that the “new” Pixels won’t have RCS support on the carrier. This comes as less of a surprise as T-Mobile also didn’t support RCS on the Pixel 3 or 3a which launched on the carrier earlier this year.

Needless to say, Google’s RCS rollout cannot come to the US soon enough.

Ouch! We're so sorry to have contributed to this confusion. You are so right, the Pixel 3 (by Google) does support RCS, as does Samsung's S9. The Pixel 4 (also by Google, not Samsung 😬) will not yet be RCS supported by VZ at launch. We will let you know if anything changes! ^KAD

— Verizon Wireless CS (@VZWSupport) October 17, 2019

Hey there, Thomas. Great question! No, the new T-Mobile Pixels do not support RCS at this time. DM us with additional questions. Thanks! https://t.co/xa3Nj2eHVd ^AlishaCombs

— T-Mobile Help (@TMobileHelp) October 15, 2019