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Apple's Messages app will be getting RCS texting support later this year as part of iOS 18, promising 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 allow for better photo sharing and group chats whether your contacts use an iPhone or an Android.
Buried in Apple's iOS 18 preview page (scroll all the way down to the Messages section or just check out the above photo I clipped out) is a screenshot that displays what an RCS conversation could look like when an iPhone texts with an Android.
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 (hopefully) high-quality photo, which doesn't look great in this screenshot so we're going to have to believe from the green bubble text beneath it that it is indeed "vibrant." 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.
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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 does not necessarily mean that Apple's Messages app will support the same features one-for-one. For instance, Apple said last year 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.
There are still a lot of questions left to answer about Apple's support of RCS. For instance, how well will it support group chats? Will it translate message reactions that are sent by Android phones to the iPhone? For now, those details will remain under wraps, possibly until Apple is ready to unveil its next iPhone later this year.
