The Rich Communications Service (RCS) standard has been touted as the ultimate messaging platform for some time. Unfortunately, its implementation and adoption worldwide could be described as sluggish at best. Therefore, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile have collaborated on the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI), which aims to bring it to their customers by 2020.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-US-big-4-carriers-announce-a-joint-initiative-to-finally-get-RCS-on-phones.440543.0.html