Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google announced an RCS upgrade for 911 texting last year, and the rollout is expected in winter across the US.
- In line with this rollout announcement, we’ve spotted new code within Google Messages that points towards enabling RCS texting for emergency services.
- RCS emergency texting on Android will enable features like location sharing, higher-quality media sharing, and more.
Calling 911 may not be the best solution during certain emergencies, even though it would be the easiest way to get help. In certain situations, you may need to contact emergency services more discreetly, and that’s where texting 911 comes in handy. But as with all things SMS, the basic SMS service could be fairly limiting in what you can convey in your messages, and that’s where RCS comes in.
911 texting is overdue for an RCS upgrade on Android. Google announced last year that it had partnered with RapidSOS to upgrade 911 call centers across the US to support RCS-based text-to-911. The upgrade to RCS will allow users to confirm message delivery, send high-resolution images and videos, share precise locations, and more.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Upgrading call centers is one piece of the puzzle. The other is to ensure that the feature works on Android flagships. For this, Google has added a new flag in the latest Google Messages v20250129 that enables RCS-based text-to-911:
Code
bugle.enable_emergency_rcs_messagingAdditionally, Google has also added new strings for sharing location with emergency services:
Code
<string name="message_emergency_action">Message %1$s</string>
<string name="banner_message_emergency_title">You will be asked to allow location access to Messages</string>
<string name="emergency_toolstone_location_permission">%1$s location access to Messages</string>
<string name="emergency_toolstone_location_permission_link">Allow</string>Given that Google had mentioned a winter rollout for RCS-based text-to-911, we’re on track for the feature to become available to Android users. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
