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Google Messages Moves Closer to Native RCS Video Calls, Beta Code Shows

Code in Google Messages' latest beta points to call confirmation screens and capability checks for video calling over RCS, a capability the Universal Profile 4.0 standard supports but the app has not yet shipped.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-29 06:22

The RCS standard has already announced support for native video calls inside chats, through the Universal Profile 4.0 specification. Google Messages today handles video calling through Google Meet or carrier-based ViLTE, neither of which runs through an RCS messaging session.

Android Authority first found signs of the work in May 2026, when a single text string in the app pointed to early groundwork. The latest beta build, version messages.android_20260924_00_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic, contains considerably more. Four strings describe a bottom sheet that would appear before a call is placed: a "Call" button, a "Cancel" button, and headings reading "Call?" or, when a contact name is available, "Call %1$s?". The report said the labels tying those strings to RCS indicate the interface is being built specifically for video calls over the standard, rather than for the existing Meet or ViLTE options.

Further references appear in internal checks and functional code. Two log messages state that the app will ignore an RCS video call request when no RcsVideoController is bound, and when recipients are not reachable over RCS video. A function named launchRcsVideoCall$<anonymous> and a file named RcsVideoCapabilityCheckerImpl.kt also appear in the release.

None of that means the feature works yet. Android Authority said it still cannot show a functioning RCS video call interface, and the capability remains unreleased in Google Messages. The publication described the strings and code as continued evidence that Google is developing the feature, not as confirmation of a launch date, and said it would keep examining later releases for more substantial material.

The findings sit inside a broader change in Android messaging. RCS has already helped Google Messages modernize features Android users expect from texting and has moved Android closer to parity with iOS, Android Authority wrote, adding that video calling over the standard has been one of the upgrades it has tracked since the specification added support for it.