Fraunhofer IIS, primary developer of the xHE-AAC audio codec, is delighted by the mandatory inclusion of its audio coding standard into GSMA’s RCS messaging specification for mobile phones worldwide.
RCS, or Rich Communication Services, modernizes SMS messaging by introducing features such as group chats, file sharing or chatbots. It aims to provide users with a more interactive and engaging messaging experience directly through their native messaging apps on their smartphones. The latest 3.0 Universal Profile that was published by GSMA (GSM Association), now adds even more appealing functionalities including E2EE (end-to-end encryption) and decoding of xHE-AAC encoded audio messages that in the future will allow users to send and receive audio messages with clearly improved clarity and intelligibility.
“The adoption of xHE-AAC into the GSMA RCS 3.0 Universal Profile marks an important milestone,” says Manfred Lutzky, Head of Audio for Communications at Fraunhofer IIS. “In the future mobile operators, phone manufacturers and subscribers alike will benefit from the much improved audio quality and extended versatility that this state-of-the-art audio codec adds to the service.”
xHE-AAC playback is natively supported in billions of consumer playback platforms including Microsoft Windows 11 as well as in the operating systems of Amazon, Apple, and Google. Audible and other service providers are delivering billions of hours of xHE-AAC content each month.
*xHE-AAC is a registered trademark of Fraunhofer in Germany, the United States, and other countries.