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The latest update to the Universal Profile (v3.1) behind RCS brings support for improved audio quality in voice messages and other media.
Announced today by the GSMA, Universal Profile 3.1 delivers a handful of changes to RCS, but with two key standouts. The first is “new mechanisms for connecting RCS clients to operator services.” Specifically, RCS clients will enhance the new user onboarding process to “[ensure] a more seamless and reliable user experience.” We’ll have to wait and see how this is actually reflected in the future.
More impactful to users, though, is Universal Profile 3.1’s improved support for audio, with the update now supporting the xHE-AAC audio codec. This allows for higher audio quality after decompression, meaning that voice messages, shared audio clips, and more will sound better through RCS.
The GSMA explains:
The release introduces support for the xHE-AAC audio codec, enabling highly efficient compression and decompression of shared audio content, which significantly enhances the quality both for speech and non-speech use cases. Whether users are sending voice notes, ambient sound clips, or have audio-based chatbot interactions, they can now expect clearer, more natural playback.
Other improvements include better spam reporting, improved file transfer security, and “the use of deep links to initiate a conversation.”
We’ll start to see these changes in the future as RCS apps, such as Google Messages, adopt the latest standard update.
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