For a while now, Google has been trying to convince Apple to adopt the RCS standard. To this date, Apple has firmly chosen to stay inside its iMessage walled garden. Recently, the Senior Vice President of Platforms and Ecosystems at Google spoke about RCS, its growth, and iMessage.

In a conversation with 9to5Google, Hiroshi Lockheimer delved into the topic of RCS. During the talk, Lockheimer reminisced about the history, explaining how the GSMA approached Google to bring support to RCS. This help was crucial as carriers — like Verizon and AT&T — all had their own plans on how to implement the standard. He also touched on how Google realized it could accelerate RCS adoption by letting users “get this experience by downloading an app rather than waiting for something they couldn’t control to happen.”