RCS Universal Profile 4.1 will add granular profile privacy controls to Galaxy phones, letting users choose who can see their name and profile photo in one-to-one and group chats.
The 4.1 upgrade also shifts RCS from MSRP and SIP sessions to a connectionless gRPC transport, a change GSMA says should speed message delivery, cut battery use and improve connection stability.
Apple and Google must adopt the new profile before those gains reach users, and Google Messages is still on RCS Universal Profile 2.4, suggesting a rollout is likely at least a year away.
RCS has already enabled richer messaging between iPhones and Samsung phones, though carrier support remains uneven; before 4.1 arrives broadly, the interim 4.0 release could bring native Android-iPhone video calling.