Apple adopted Wealthy Communication Companies (RCS) with the launch of iOS 18, upgrading messaging requirements for non-iMessage conversations. Apple’s determination to undertake RCS got here as a shock when it was first introduced in November 2023 as a result of Google had been aggressively pushing Apple to implement RCS for years, however Apple would not budge.
This information explains every part that it is advisable to learn about RCS, together with the way it works, the way to apply it to Apple gadgets, why you may not see it, why Apple determined to undertake it now, and the advantages which you could anticipate from RCS now that assist for the characteristic is dwell.
RCS Defined
Wealthy Communication Companies, or RCS, is a communication protocol developed by the GSM Affiliation and championed by Google. As a communication protocol, RCS is utilized by smartphone producers and carriers to ship text-based messages, photographs, and movies between gadgets. It is principally what now powers the textual content messages that you just ship to folks together with your iPhone and different Apple gadgets when iMessage is unavailable.
RCS is a alternative for SMS (Quick Messaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), each of that are used for knowledge sharing over mobile networks. RCS combines the options of SMS and MMS, and provides extra performance. Like SMS, it enables you to to ship texts to individuals who do not have iPhones for iMessage.
RCS Options
There are an a variety of benefits to RCS in comparison with the prior MMS and SMS options. A lot of the development might be seen in iPhone to Android chats as a result of for conversations between Apple machine house owners, iMessage continues to be the default.
- Help for larger decision pictures and movies.
- Help for bigger file sizes and file sharing.
- Audio messages.
- Cross-platform emoji reactions for textual content messages.
- Actual-time typing indicators.
- Learn receipts.
- Capacity to ship messages over mobile or Wi-Fi (SMS is mobile solely). There isn’t any value to ship an RCS message over Wi-Fi.
- Improved group chats with choice for including and eradicating folks, and giving chats a reputation.
RCS vs SMS/MMS
SMS or Quick Messaging Service is supported by virtually all cellphones, and it’s designed to mean you can ship textual content messages from machine to machine. It’s accompanied by the Cellular Messaging Service extension that helps pictures, movies, and longer textual content messages. Each of those requirements have been round for greater than 20 years and have fallen behind extra trendy chat apps when it comes to options.
RCS is actually a modernized model of SMS/MMS that carriers and good telephone producers began adopting proper round a decade in the past, however it has taken time for it to be supported and never all firms have added assist, so the extra common (and extra restricted) SMS/MMS requirements have caught round too.
Maybe one of many greatest adjustments is the way in which that SMS/MMS and RCS work. SMS and MMS are provider supported and require a mobile connection to operate. RCS is supported by carriers, however RCS messages might be despatched over a mobile or Wi-Fi connection, much like iMessages, so there is no particular mobile connection requirement.
RCS is actually far more like WhatsApp, iMessage, Messenger, and related chat apps, however baked right into a smartphone’s default textual content messaging app. It helps options that SMS/MMS don’t, like typing indicators, emoji reactions, high-resolution photographs, file transfers, video calls, and calls and texts over Wi-Fi.
RCS and iMessage
RCS works alongside iMessage, and it doesn’t change iMessage. For iPhone to iPhone conversations and texts on any Apple machine to a different Apple machine, iMessage is the default.
If you happen to flip off iMessage in your iPhone, it should default to RCS on supported gadgets as that’s the new textual content messaging customary for non-iMessage communications.
iMessage will proceed to operate precisely because it does now with no change for communications between Apple machine customers.
What RCS Means for iPhone Customers
In case you have pals or members of the family which have an Android machine, you may see an enchancment in a number of the frustrations that include cross-platform messaging.
Group texts between Android and iPhone customers shall be much less buggy, and there will not be the identical limitations on picture and video dimension that may trigger media to not ship. The tapback reactions that you just use on an iPhone have an emoji response equal on Android, so tapbacks will not be fairly as complicated to your Android utilizing pals.
Learn receipts and typing indicators can be found for iPhone to Android communications and will not simply be restricted to iPhone to iPhone iMessages when RCS rolls out.
Generally, iPhone house owners and people with different Apple gadgets do not want to consider RCS or fear about it. It is a change that is taking place within the background with no person interplay required. Communication isn’t altering between iPhones, and between iPhone and Android customers, messaging is about the identical, however improved when it comes to reliability.
RCS and Android
Textual content conversations with Android customers are the first manner iPhone customers expertise RCS in iOS 18. RCS is simply obtainable when all contributors within the dialog have a tool and a provider that assist it, however that encompasses most Android customers in the US. The entire main U.S. carriers assist RCS. If you happen to’re texting with somebody on a provider that doesn’t assist RCS, it should fall again to the previous SMS/MMS customary.
Android gadgets have had RCS for a while as Google and Samsung have supported it for a number of years and had been pushing Apple to undertake it.
Pre-RCS, sharing pictures and movies with Android customers may very well be tough for an iPhone person, as typically pictures and movies are too massive or will not ship. There have been additionally usually points with group conversations between Android and iPhone customers, each when it comes to supported options and stability.
Speaking to an Android person needs to be much less of a trouble because of RCS. Information and pictures shouldn’t fail to ship, there are typing indicators, and browse receipts are cross-platform.
Inexperienced Bubbles vs. Blue Bubbles
Whereas it ought to now be much less irritating to speak with “green bubble” folks on an Apple machine, chat bubble colours usually are not altering.
iMessage conversations proceed to be denoted with blue chat bubbles, and RCS messages proceed to be inexperienced, the identical as SMS/MMS messages. Notice that SMS and MMS aren’t going away. They will proceed to be obtainable on networks that do not assist RCS and in conditions the place RCS is unavailable.
RCS requires the entire gadgets collaborating in a dialog to have assist for the characteristic, and the community must assist it too. So should you occur to message somebody who makes use of a provider that does not assist RCS or who has RCS turned off, it makes use of SMS.
A Notice on Encryption
Google’s implementation of RCS for Google Messages helps end-to-end encryption on Android gadgets, however it’s value noting that Apple is adopting the RCS Common Profile created by the GSM Affiliation and never a model of RCS modified by Google. RCS messages from iPhone to Android customers are NOT encrypted on the present time.
iMessage to iMessage conversations are encrypted, however an iMessage to textual content message dialog isn’t. Apple is working with the GSM Affiliation to enhance RCS and so as to add encryption that can work for iPhone to Android conversations.
RCS Worldwide
Google, Samsung, and all U.S. carriers have adopted RCS, however in some nations, native carriers might want to add assist earlier than RCS between iPhones and different gadgets shall be practical. In case your provider doesn’t assist RCS, you’ll not see it as an choice in your iPhone. Test your RCS settings by going to Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging. Be certain RCS Messaging is toggled on. If you cannot flip it on or do not see it, your provider might not assist it and you’ll be restricted to SMS.
Apple has an inventory of carriers that assist RCS on its web site.
RCS Options Not But Applied
There are some RCS capabilities that Apple has not but added assist for, as Google has identified on its RCS web site. Apple might add these options at a later date.
- React to media with emoji.
- Reply on to messages in group chats.
- Finish-to-end encryption.
Why Is Apple Supporting RCS Now?
Google has been virtually begging Apple to implement assist for RCS since 2022, launching an internet site, beginning a social media marketing campaign, filming advertisements, and organising billboards all with the goal of convincing Apple to assist the messaging customary.
In September 2022, Tim Cook dinner stated that adopting RCS was not a precedence for Apple. “I don’t hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy into that at this point,” he stated. So what’s modified? It is not solely clear, however regulatory points have probably performed an element.
Apple is going through scrutiny over App Retailer, iMessage, and different proprietary applied sciences in a number of nations all over the world, so by adopting a common messaging customary, Apple is displaying a willingness to assist machine interoperability.
Within the European Union, legislators are creating legal guidelines that might require Apple to make adjustments to iMessage to make it obtainable on different platforms in order that iMessage customers aren’t locked in to Apple gadgets. With RCS, iMessage has fewer advantages which can be unavailable cross-platform, and nearer characteristic parity is offered on iPhone and Android gadgets.