Apple will finally adopt RCS in iOS 18, effectively ending the years-long feature parity battle between iMessage and Android. But the news isn’t a celebration—you might blink and miss it. Instead of showing off how RCS makes things better, Apple quietly announced support for the standard and focused on all the great features it offers iMessage users rather than RCS features.
Apple hasn’t revealed how the adoption of RCS will eventually allow iPhone and Android users to send high-resolution pictures and videos to each other. It doesn’t even explain how RCS will support cross-platform read receipts and input indicators. Apple only highlighted iMessage’s flashy features, including ways to bold and italicize text, improvements to Tapbacks, and the ability to arrange text.
These are big changes, but iPhone users won’t be able to use these features when chatting with someone on Android. We don’t even know how emojis created with Genmoji, Apple’s new artificial intelligence emoji creation tool, will appear in texts sent to Android users.
The company has also hidden RCS on the iOS 18 preview page. It doesn’t even mention Android users by name: “RCS (Rich Communications Services) Messaging brings richer media and delivery and reading receipts to those who don’t use iMessage.” The included image shows an RCS chat on an iPhone , with a green bubble inside it, indicates that the person you’re texting isn’t on iPhone.
Apple first confirmed RCS support was coming last year. “This will work with iMessage, which will continue to provide Apple users with the best and most secure messaging experience,” Apple spokesperson Jacqueline Roy said in a statement. edge then. But it’s not necessarily a generous gesture. Apple has been largely forced to support RCS in response to growing pressure from global regulators and competing companies. This might help explain why there was some dissatisfaction when the feature was announced in iOS 18.
But Apple’s adoption of RCS has been years in the making. Every major carrier has moved to RCS. Apple is the only company holding on, and regulators coupled with some bad press (remember Tim Cook telling a guy to buy his mom an iPhone?) have made it increasingly necessary for the company to address the issue.
The fact that Apple skipped RCS during its keynote makes it seem like Apple doesn’t think it’s worth showing off — which is silly. All Android users, myself included, are stuck getting photos and videos from iPhone users that you need a magnifying glass to see clearly (Also trying to convince them to download third party messengers that actually support high resolution media).
This is a huge improvement for both Android and Android and iPhone users! Unfortunately, the long-awaited unity of messaging systems on iPhone and Android is drowned out by disturbing artificial intelligence-generated emojis and shaky iMessage bubbles. Even without Apple’s stamp of approval, I’m excited to finally be able to exchange 21st-century photos and videos with iPhone-using friends and family.
