Green bubbles, rejoice: your iPhone-using friends are finally going to have a much better time texting you. As part of iOS 18, which was released for everyone on Monday, Apple added support for RCS, the Rich Communication Services protocol for messaging. This means that chats between iPhone and Android users will finally have a bunch of sorely needed features that should have been in place a long time ago.
A big reason I’ve stayed on iOS (and haven’t even considered switching to Android) is because iMessage conversations work especially well for my family group chats, and I don’t want to nerf those chats. This new RCS support is a great step toward making iPhone-to-Android texts work a lot better (though there are still enough drawbacks that I’m planning to stick with iOS).
RCS on iOS improves chats with friends on Android
With RCS on iOS, you’ll get major improvements like high-resolution media, typing indicators, and read receipts when you’re texting with people on other phones that also support RCS. In its iOS 18 press release, Apple also highlights support for “more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.”
RCS chats are still missing many features Apple bakes in for iMessage conversations, like being able to schedule messages to send later or add animated text effects to what you write. But with RCS support, a lot of the basics are now available.
How do you know if you’re in an RCS chat?
When you’re texting somebody not on an iPhone, take a look at the text-entry box. In gray letters, you’ll see the words “Text Message,” then a dot, and then “RCS” or “SMS.” If you see RCS, you’re having an RCS chat! You might see similar “RCS” or “SMS” indicators in the middle of a conversation thread.
There may be, however, at least one catch: it seems that not all carriers support RCS on iPhone yet. While, according to 9to5Google, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all support the feature in the US, I’m on Mint Mobile, and instead of saying “RCS,” my iPhone-to-Android conversations still say “SMS.” At least I have good-looking Tapbacks, which are available on SMS. But on the whole, SMS conversations haven’t changed, so if you’re forced to chat with your Android friends over SMS, you’ll have to deal with the limitations that have been in place for years.
If, for some reason, you want to turn RCS off, you can do that from Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.
RCS on iOS isn’t as secure as it could be
Apple is only supporting the basic RCS standard, called RCS Universal Profile, which doesn’t have cross-platform end-to-end encryption. That means if you’re texting your friend who use Google Messages, those messages won’t be encrypted like they are if you’re texting with another iPhone user over iMessage.
While disappointing, it’s not too surprising. Apple would probably still prefer that everyone buy an iPhone. And the GSMA announced today that it wants to add interoperable end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile, so iPhone users texting their Android friends might have end-to-end encryption in the not-to-distant future.
Correction, September 17th: An earlier version of this article misstated the availability of encryption on RCS on iOS 18. The RCS Universal Profile implemented by Apple does use encryption, but it does not support end-to-end encryption between iOS and Android.