T-Mobile MVNO Mint Mobile calls this its “Craziest phone deal yet”

The deal coincides with a huge update that brings RCS (Rich Communication Services) Messaging to Mint and Ultra Mobile subscribers. Instead of old-school SMS and MMS texting, Mint and Ultra Mobile customers will get benefits such as the ability to send and receive longer messages, high-resolution images and videos, typing indicators, read receipts, end-to-end encryption on supported platforms, and more. RCS is available regardless of whether the subscriber is using an iPhone or an Android device.

For Mint Mobile subscribers this means that they won’t have to switch apps or lose helpful features just because the person they are texting doesn’t use the same mobile wireless platform that they do. Mint Mobile customers also shouldn’t have to lose these features because someone using a different wireless platform joins their chat.

Mint Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Fried might have been joking when he said, “When we brought this idea to our finance team, they thought we were joking.” Apparently, it’s no joke. Mint’s plans include free mobile hotspot, Wi-Fi calling, free roaming in Canada, and more. RCS must be enabled on all devices for cross-OS RCS messaging.