Google Assistant is coming to the Messages app and RCS marches on

Google has a history of changing its mind about messaging services, launching and closing them left, right and center. The company now seems pretty invested in its Messages platform, and has been gradually adding more and more features to increase its appeal.

Google's latest move sees it bringing Assistant integration to the Messages app so you can get one-tap access to AI-powered help and information. The company also says that it remains committed to RCS (Rich Communication Service) and wants to bring the standard to more Android users.

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Google says that English-language Messages users will be able to take advantage of Google Assistant from within the app over the coming months It will use AI to offer up suggestions about movies, restaurants and weather, and this information can then be shared in messages.

Google stresses that the AI is "on-device" and therefore doesn't send private data anywhere:

You can tap on the suggestion chip to learn more from your Assistant, and if you find the info is helpful, you can share the information in your conversation. If you're chatting about a movie, you might see a suggestion chip to learn more about that film. By tapping the chip, you can ask the Assistant to pull up a card with recent movie reviews or showtimes, which you can choose to share back into your conversation with just another tap. If you don’t choose to share that information, the other person won't see it.

The roll out of RCS support continues, and Google says that it is working to bring it to more people.

To improve the standard messaging experience on Android, we've been working with many of our ecosystem partners, including Samsung, Huawei, America Movil, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Telenor, and Vodafone to make RCS (Rich Communication Services) more widely available. Google has helped to launch RCS with partners in 24 countries, bringing enhanced features in your conversations like group chats, read receipts, and high quality media sharing. We will continue to work to bring better messaging to every Android user, regardless of their device or carrier.