RCS messaging brings more power to cross-platform messaging.
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Apple's Messages app has adopted a new cross-platform messaging standard called RCS. Here's how to make sure it's enabled on your iPhone, and what new features it gives you when messaging people on other platforms.
RCS, which stands for Rich Communication Services, brings some of the features of Messages to users who don't have an iPhone. It's also been adopted by other messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Starting with iOS 18, RCS is supported — meaning some features you previously only saw when reading or sending messages to other iPhone users now work when messaging Android owners, too.
This includes better security for messages sent from some Android messaging apps, support for read receipts, and the ability to send and receive high-resolution photos, audio, and video across platforms. The typing indicators that appear before you send a message on iPhone are now visible on both platforms.
Cross-platform backpresses and reactions are also supported. Group chats across platforms will also work better thanks to improved compatibility.
How to tell if you're using RCS messaging
Since RCS support only arrived in iOS 18 and later updates, you may want to check to see if it's enabled — as it should be by default. Open the Settings app, scroll down, tap Apps, find Messages, and if you see the RCS message menu, it should already be enabled.
To check if your carrier automatically supports RCS, you should open Settings, then General, then About. If you scroll down to the SIM/Network section, you will see an option called Carrier.
Tapping on switches the heading to IMS Status. If your carrier supports RCS, you should see Voice, SMS, and RCS. Otherwise, you will only see Voice and SMS.
If your carrier does not support RCS, this extra layer of features and security will only appear if you and your contact are using messaging apps that support RCS, such as iMessage, WhatsApp, or Google Messages, and are using devices that support it.
Apple maintains a list of carriers in regions around the world that support RCS. Of course, all major carriers in the US support RCS, but some regional or smaller carriers like Boost Mobile do not, at least not yet.
Messages app users will still always know if they are receiving a message from someone on iPhone — the message will be in a blue bubble instead of a green one. Growing RCS adoption and future encryption standards on Android will not change this.
If you receive a green message sent using RCS, the message will have the heading “RCS Text Message,” and if it was sent using SMS, it will say “SMS” instead.
Ways to find out whether a text message was sent via RCS, iMessage, or SMS.
RCS support does not fully meet feature parity
All of this compatibility is largely due to pressure from the European Union, which requires messaging systems between platforms to work with each other. Some other messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger, now also use RCS features.
However, it’s still not 100 percent standardized across all platforms, and there are two areas that Messages users should be aware of. Text effects available between iMessage users, such as loud, boom, clap, invisible ink, etc., do not appear when sent to an Android user.
Instead, the Android recipient receives a text stating that a message was sent with the named effect, but is unable to display the effect. Likewise, inline replies to a specific message in Messages are not supported when sending messages to an Android user, at least at this time.
The big stumbling block with RCS, however, is that it still doesn't support encryption as a cross-platform standard. If an Android user uses Google Messages, as well as Google's own RCS servers or WhatsApp, messages are encrypted.
Outside of those apps, only Apple-to-Apple messages are fully encrypted. This is something to keep in mind if the Android users in your group chat aren't using WhatsApp or Google Messages on their end.
Both Apple and Google have said they will work with the GSMA to include industry-standard encryption and better feature compatibility in a future version of RCS. This will make security and feature compatibility supported by default, without having to depend on individual carriers or app developers.
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