Bell Canada recently announced the launch of 'Advanced Messaging', the country's first integrated Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging experience. Available first on Samsung's latest-generation smartphones, Bell Advanced Messaging offers a suite of mobile messaging features previously available through specialized third-party applications.
Bell customers with the recently announced Samsung Note8 as well as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are the first to experience these new messaging enhancements, without having to download an app or change their current setups. More smartphones will be enabled with Advanced Messaging in future and Bell will continue to enhance the service with new features.
Bell Advanced Messaging offers enhanced delivery notifications - shows if a message was sent, received, read or when the other person is typing; longer messages and group chat - messages can be up to 8,000 characters and group chats up to 100 participants; file transfers - supports higher-resolution pictures, longer videos and additional file types, such as PDF, XLS and ZIP files; and one messaging inbox and conversation history - combines all Advanced Messaging, SMS and MMS messages with the same contact in one convenient conversation view.
"As the first integrated RCS product available in Canada, Bell Advanced Messaging takes the standard mobile carrier messaging experience to the next level with powerful new features like group chat, high-res photo sharing, read receipts and much more," said Nauby Jacob, Bell's Vice President, Products and Services. "We're proud to partner with Samsung to bring our customers this Canadian first on the country's fastest ranked mobile network and the first in North America to offer full Quad Band LTE data speeds."
The Samsung Note8 is also the latest Samsung device to operate on Bell's Quad Band LTE-A network, which can deliver mobile data speeds of up to 750 Mbps (expected average speeds of 25 to 220 Mbps). A North American first, Bell's Quad Band network was launched in April and service is already available in approximately 50 cities throughout Canada.
"We are committed to helping accelerate and expand advanced messaging through our infrastructure and services, and thrilled to deliver this experience to our Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ customers through Bell," said Paul Brannen, COO and EVP of Mobile Devices for Samsung Canada.