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By Jill Cooper, Marketing Director, GSMA |
The GSMA’s Universal Profile for Advanced messaging gets launch date.
The GSMA’s Network 2020 programme has been working closely with leading operators, OEMs and operating system providers on the development of its Universal Profile for Advanced Messaging for the past few months. The initiative was created to help global operators upgrade their messaging services and provide subscribers with a superior and enhanced experience that worked simply and consistently across devices without the need to download multiple messaging apps. You may recall we made a number of announcements about it back in February and July this year. Well, we are delighted to be able to provide you with publication dates for the launch of the specification which will be issued over two releases starting in November 2016. The quick availability of the Profile will accelerate deployment as well as increase the availability of compatible devices particularly in terms of open market devices which constitutes 60% of all devices worldwide.
The first release will be published on Wednesday, 17 November 2016 and include core messaging features such as chat, group chat, file transfer, audio messaging, video share, enriched calling, location share and live sketching. It will also include capability discovery which will be interoperable between regions and alert users about which services they can use with their contacts. The second release will be made available in March 2017 and will improve messaging expressiveness, APIs, plug-in integration and improved authentication and security and also introduce ‘conversational commerce’ that will enable users to interact with brands within the platform.
The Universal Profile will simplify and accelerate the adoption of interoperable communications services by providing an open, consistent and globally interoperable messaging service across devices. The move will mean that most smartphones will ship with a built-in Advanced Messaging app, which will let consumers to easily text, chat and share media without having to identify and download which apps their contacts are using. It will also reduce the technical implementation options and simplify deployment and provide the scale required to develop messaging-as-a-platform.
It is currently supported by 56 operators, OEMs and OS providers including: AIS, América Móvil, Axiata Group, Beeline, Bell Mobility, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Claro Brazil, Claro Colombia, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Globe Telecom, Indosat Ooredoo, KPN, M1, Megafon, Millicom, MTN, MTS, Optus, Orange, Personal Argentina, Personal Paraguay, PLAY, Reliance Jio, Rogers Communications, Singtel, Smart Communications, Sprint, StarHub, Telcel Mexico, Tele2, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telkomsel, Telstra, Telus, TIM, T-Mobile US, Turkcell, Verizon, VimpelCom and Vodafone. Alcatel, ASUS, General Mobile, HTC, Intex Technologies, Lava International Ltd., LG Electronics, Lenovo/Motorola, Samsung Electronics and ZTE, as well as mobile OS providers Google and Microsoft are also supportive.
Read more about the Universal Profile.