The gap between Apple’s iMessage and Google’s Messages app has been a topic of much debate since iMessage’s launch in 2011.
iOS 18, which launched on September 16 and ships with the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, brings the universal Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol to iPhone for the first time.
This means that chats between iPhone and Android users will finally get the ability to share high-quality media, tap responses, audio messages, and other features that enhance the experience. Previously, these features were limited to chats within Apple’s ecosystem or within the Android ecosystem.
RCS has been the standard for Android phones for a while now, and Google is celebrating Apple’s adoption of RCS as a step in the right direction, calling the rollout a victory for its #GetTheMessage campaign.
We’ve put together this guide to bring you up to speed on all the ways RCS improves messaging between iPhone and Android, and we’ve also highlighted a few things we’d like to see added.
How to enable RCS
First of all, check if RCS is enabled on your iPhone or Android phone.
On the iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS MessagesAnd slide the switch to On.
Most modern Android phones have RCS enabled by default, but to be sure, go to the Google Messages app, Tap your profile picture, scroll down to the Message Settings section, and Tap on the RCS Chats tab to find a similar switch.
Advantages
1. Group conversations
It was previously possible to start a group chat between iPhone and Android users without using a third-party app like WhatsApp, but with some major caveats.
A group text message between iPhone users offers everyone involved the full suite of iMessage features, such as audio messages, Tapback reactions, and Memoji stickers. Add an Android user to the mix, however, and all of those features would go away sooner than later as the entire chat switches to MMS.
RCS doesn’t offer all the features of iMessage, but it does allow you to send high-quality media, audio messages, and a smaller number of tap responses.
This has a dual effect: everyone in a group chat can use these modern features, and Android users who only want to chat via iPhone will have less pressure.
Until now, messaging between iPhones and Android phones was limited to the SMS/MMS standard, which allowed users to send and receive only text, images, and videos up to 5 MB in size, or 30 seconds for video.
Because of this small file size limit, media sent via MMS often needs to be heavily compressed. This means that the recipient may receive pixelated images and videos (for reference, one minute of uncompressed 1080p MP4 video takes up about 20MB).
The RCS standard coming to iPhone supports a maximum file size of 105MB per message, meaning images and videos can be sent and received in high quality. That said, you may still need to use a dedicated file transfer or storage service for larger files.
3. Read receipts
What’s worse than being left on ‘read’? Not knowing if you’ve been left on ‘read’.
Read receipts – the notes or symbols that indicate the recipient has read your message – are a source of assurance that most users take for granted.
SMS and MMS messages lack the time-stamped read receipts that you see in nearly all other messaging services. iOS 18 and RCS finally bring this now-basic feature to Messages across multiple platforms.
4. Type indicators
It can be hard to keep track of the progress of a conversation when you’re looking at a screen full of text, which is why typing indicators are so valuable.
These notifications often appear as a speech bubble with moving ellipses and appear on the screen when someone types.
RCS support enables typing indicators for cross-platform messages, so you can see when your friends have their replies ready, regardless of platform.
5. Share location
iMessage and third-party apps like WhatsApp allow users to share their location on an interactive map. This has become an important feature for safety and convenience.
Apple’s RCS implementation allows users to share a location pin in text conversations.
This doesn’t match the live tracking functionality of iMessage or third-party apps like WhatsApp, but again, it’s a step in the right direction.
6. Sending messages via WiFi
RCS offers more options to stay connected by allowing users to chat over mobile data and Wi-Fi. In comparison, MMS messages can only be sent over a mobile network.
This has long been a selling point of third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Signal, but these apps lack the ability to access cellular networks. By comparison, iMessage already supports Wi-Fi, mobile data, and cellular network compatibility.
All in all, these are some solid new features, but Apple could do more to make RCS messaging on iPhone even better.
Disadvantages
1. No encryption – seriously
The RCS protocol supports end-to-end encryption, meaning that your message is scrambled into code before being sent to the recipient, whose device has the unique key needed to decipher your message. In theory, unencrypted messages could be intercepted by third parties as they travel from sender to recipient.
If The Edge According to the notes, Apple has opted to use the base version of RCS – the Universal Profile – to add end-to-end encryption to its RCS implementation. This means that iMessage remains the only way to send encrypted messages over Apple’s own service.
We are not fans of this move by Apple. Companies need to differentiate their products, but doing so by offering sub-optimal security is really anti-consumer.
2. No video calls
While RCS does support video calling, it’s not hard to see why Apple hasn’t included it in its basic messaging service.
FaceTime had such an impact that the brand name is still used as a generic term for video calling, 14 years after it was first introduced.
Apple likely wants to keep its first-party video calling options centralized. Android users can join FaceTime calls through a web browser via a link sent by an Apple user, but they can’t initiate a call themselves.
3. Green bubbles are here to stay
The famous – or infamous, depending on who you ask – green speech bubbles associated with Android phones are here to stay.
In practice, these green bubbles simply indicate that a message is coming from outside Apple’s iMessage protocol, but the otherness this implies has caused enough stigma to warrant a cartel casecountless memes and a full song by global rapper Drake.
This effect is likely amplified by Apple’s large market share in the US, which fluctuates around 55%. A report of Bloomberg Intelligence Service found that 79% of Gen Z prefer iPhone over Android – a demographic that includes teenagers growing up increasingly dependent on technology for their social lives.
So as pointless as the stigma around green texts is, it is true. We hope that the implementation of RCS will help to counter this bizarre phenomenon.
The iPhone 16 series will be the first to ship with iOS 18, but RCS will be available on all iPhones that support the update. The oldest of these are the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
For tips and updates on all the new features coming to iPhone, check out our dedicated iOS 18 coverage.
