Google believes that interoperable IP messaging based on the open Rich Communications Services (RCS) specification is a viable direction to improve the Android messaging experience for users beyond SMS/MMS and is becoming a fundamental technology expected on the devices for which we’re licensing GMS.
Therefore, we plan to add the following in the upcoming Q4 GMS Requirements (to be announced with other changes in November), which will be enforced 60 days after the announcement.
Software builds for new device implementations with FEATURE_TELEPHONY support MUST include a default telephony messaging (e.g. SMS/MMS) application (i.e. the default handler for the SMS_DELIVER_ACTION intent) and underlying software components that:
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support each of these services associated with the RCS Universal Profile 1.0:
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Device Provisioning
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Capability Discovery
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1-to-1 Messaging
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Group Chat
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File Transfer
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are exempted from battery optimization (doze mode) in order to receive messages in a timely fashion.
In addition, the app SHOULD implement the most current RCS Universal Profile published at the time of development.
The GMS Optional application ‘Android Messages’ (preload instructions) is an example of an application that meets these requirements.