Apple’s Messages app will be getting RCS texting support later this year as part of iOS 18, intending to add more modern features to conversations between an iPhone and an Android phone. Even though the feature didn’t get much more than a passing reference during the company’s WWDC 2024 keynote, it promises to be a huge improvement that could improve photo sharing and group chats whether your contacts use an iPhone or an Android.
Apple’s iOS 18 public beta is providing a work-in-progress look at RCS texting, and there are already noticeable improvements to how texts work when sent between an iPhone running this software and an Android phone.
An RCS conversation on the iOS 18 beta.
My colleague Nelson Aguilar is currently using the software, and I asked him to text my Moto G Power 5G review unit running Android 14, and right away both his iPhone and my Android phone marked that the chat would use RCS to support typing indicators and high-quality media. He sent me a photo from his recent Hawaii vacation, which came out colorful and quite clear within my Google Messages app — an upgrade over photos shrunken to thumbnails in chats between iPhones and Android phones.
Then the conversation showed him a read receipt after I opened it along with a typing indicator as I sent over a photo and video of the 115-inch TCL television at CNET’s New York office.
Sending over a photo and a video over RCS from my Android phone to Nelson’s iPhone was easy, but the message reaction still sent as a message.
However at this point the fact that we’re using beta software starts to become apparent, as the conversation started to fallback to the SMS and MMS standard. We each sent over a message reaction, which arrived as a message instead of being attached to the appropriate photo. Then a video Nelson sent over arrived on my Moto phone completely compressed by the MMS standard. Hopefully as we get closer to iOS 18’s official launch this fall, that discrepancy will get worked out. However, much like how a failed iMessage text will also default to SMS, having SMS and MMS as a backup could still be useful as RCS support develops.
And yes, all text bubbles from the iPhone side of the conversation will be colored green, while the Google Messages app will display whichever color you decide from the app’s settings menu.
The RCS conversation briefly rolls back into MMS, meaning that the video Nelson sent became compressed and garbled. Yet it reverted back to RCS to show the typing indicator after that.
Prior to the iOS 18 public beta’s addition of RCS, Apple’s iOS 18 preview page demonstrates these texting improvements by showing a sample chat with media attachments.
While it looks a lot like an SMS or MMS conversation, featuring two green bubbles and a green audio waveform, there are three noticeable RCS features on display. The biggest is the “Delivered” status message, which is a huge step forward since SMS and MMS cannot provide such confirmations.
Next is the high-quality photo, which is described as “vibrant” within the context of the sample chat. Current MMS texting on the iPhone supports audio messages with Android phones, but hopefully the audio in this conversation is clearer than what currently goes through.
Watch this: iOS 18 Brings New Tapback Features and Text Over Satellite
And in the text box at the bottom of the image, there’s labeling that now says “RCS” to the right of “Text Message,” the latter of which is currently used by itself for SMS and MMS chats.
RCS is a more modern texting standard that’s been tipped to replace the aging SMS and MMS formats, due to its ability to support features like typing indicators, group chats and high-quality media sharing. The standard has been championed by the industry group GSMA and has been used by Google’s Messages app for Android for several years.
However, even though Google’s Messages app supports several features that rival Apple’s iMessage by taking advantage of RCS, including RCS support in iOS 18, that does not necessarily mean that Apple’s Messages app will support the same features one-for-one. For instance, Apple said last year that it will work with the GSMA to improve the encryption standard included within RCS rather than adopt another company’s, such as the one Google Messages uses. Apple also announced that its iMessage service will continue to be supported alongside RCS, so it’s likely that we’ll continue to see iMessage features that will stay separate from RCS.
The more finalized addition of RCS is set to arrive to the iPhone when iOS 18 gets its official launch later this year, likely around the time that Apple announces its next line of iPhone models.
Read more: I’ve Used iOS 18 Since Its Developer Phase, Here’s My Take on the Public Beta
Watch this: iOS 18 Hands-On: Exploring the Big Design Changes
