RCS vs. SMS – The new standard of text messages is not tracked by the carrier.

If you are an Android user, or an iPhone user texting an Android user, you may have noticed that you are now using RCS. When you open the default text messaging app on your phone, you are likely now using RCS messaging.

RCS is the new text message standard that has replaced SMS messages. RCS offers several advantages, including encryption of messages in transit and higher-quality image attachments.

This change has significant implications for attorneys – text messaging metadata will no longer appear on carrier billing records. Many attorneys are accustomed to sending subpoenas to cellular carriers to obtain information about phone calls and text messages from a specific device. While the carriers do not store the content of text message communications, they have stored the metadata, including the to, from, date, and time of each message.

With the evolution to RCS messaging, that data will no longer appear. If you subpoena the carrier to determine who someone was texting, you will not receive any information. RCS messages are similar to chat messages (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat) and will not appear in carrier records. Instead, to obtain that data, you will need to go to the phone itself.

A cellphone forensics expert can download the data from the phone and produce all the messaging data. To preserve such data, it is essential to act promptly. If the messages are deleted or the phone is lost, stolen, or damaged, a forensic examiner may not be able to recover them.