Rich Communication Services (RCS), provides better and safer messaging than SMS or MMS. With Google Messages, IT admins can archive or disable RCS messages.
Learn about Rich Communication Services messaging.
RCS Archival with Google Messages
Android RCS Archival lets third-party archival apps securely access and archive messages. This feature works for Google Messages on fully-managed Android devices. It allows capturing and logging both RCS and SMS or MMS messages, creating a reliable record for compliance purposes.
In the past, archival solutions depended on mobile carrier or third-party local logging tools and only worked for SMS. Google's method lets specific archival apps connect directly with Google Messages. Users are clearly informed when message archival is active on their device.
This provides a good way to log and audit mobile communications, making Android a strong choice for safe business communication in areas like finance and government.
Enable RCS Archival in Google Messages
Disable RCS in Google Messages
- Enterprise admins can approve the Google Messages app in managed Google Play, and edit its managed app configuration via their Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) provider.
- Enterprise admins can use a managed configuration app-restriction called disable_rcs via their EMM provider and set it to true to remotely disable RCS.
- The earliest Android Messages version that supports this capability is messages.android_20220121_02_RC03.
Managed configurations can only be applied to apps within a Work Profile or on a fully managed device. This configuration can’t be set on Google Messages outside the Work Profile. Your EMM provider may have its own way of setting up managed configurations. To learn more, check your EMM documentation.