Google Voice’s lack of RCS support is making me the outcast of my group chat

Every friend group is going to have its black sheep. Maybe they’re the one who’s most likely to need bailing out, the one who’s always canceling plans at the last minute, or the one who’s never jumping at the chance to buy the next round. I’m the black sheep in my friend group, and it’s all Google’s fault.

Like many friends do, we keep in touch through a group chat, and at first, everything was fine. But one by one, over the past few years everybody started upgrading to RCS, getting access to new features — and having their expectations for text messaging evolve. The big problem, though: I’m using Google Voice, and Google Voice feels like it’s never going to get RCS.