RCS is now officially compatible with iPhones

Although we have known it was coming for almost a year, today is the day we have been waiting for: RCS compatibility is giving the texting experience between the stock messaging apps on Android and iPhone a significant boost. Rich conversations have long been supported by Android texting apps such as Google Messages, Samsung Messages, and many carrier apps, but iPhones may now use the protocol designed to replace SMS and MMS since Apple officially released iOS 18.

With the formal release of iOS 18 to the public channel, iPhone users worldwide will begin to receive an upgrade starting today. After installing the updated firmware, users will be able to receive RCS messages sent to their phone number via iMessage’s parent app, Apple Messages.

The official Android account on Twitter/X highlighted some of the features you may now take use of in a series of tweets to commemorate the milestone. Among the advantages you will probably notice are the ability to send high-quality images and videos, respond to messages with emoticons, and add and remove members in group chats at will.

“Apple is starting to #GetTheMessage and upgrade to RCS,” the Android account jokes, making fun of the green bubble issue and Google’s push to force Apple to adopt RCS.

Green bubbles are becoming more similar to blue bubbles.

Through the iOS 18 beta program, we had the opportunity to test the new RCS capabilities. Although there were still some bugs at the time, the standard features of an instant messaging client, such as read receipts, message replies, and higher file sizes, were all present. On iPhones, however, messages from Android devices continue to appear as green bubbles; only discussions between iMessage and iMessage are blue.

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RCS messaging between Android and iPhone enable in-transit encryption to assist prevent message interception, as Apple states in its documentation for the capability, but end-to-end encryption is not yet available for these messages.

It is confusing to note that Android-to-Android RCS chats do support E2EE because Google’s Jibe backend is used by both Samsung and Google’s Messages apps, which layered Signal’s encryption protocol over the RCS Universal Profile foundation. However, Apple’s RCS implementation only makes use of the Universal Profile standard’s functionalities. Although its incorporation into the Universal Profile is not assured, Google Messages was recently seen adding support for MLS, a new industry standard, to help with this.

Carrier assistance is an additional challenge to consider. A Google Fi representative clarified in a statement to 9to5Google that the iPhone manufacturer has not yet turned on its Google Fi MVNO and that “only Apple has the power to activate RCS compatibility for iPhone consumers” with certain mobile service providers. Nevertheless, iPhone RCS is currently available on all of the main US carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. We have also observed the service activating on Canadian carriers.

To start chatting over RCS with friends on iOS, you can set Google Messages as your default texting app, then make sure the other person has RCS enabled on their iPhone under Settings → Apps → Messages → RCS Messaging.

Google Messages

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