iOS 18 Rolling Out RCS To the iPhone For Better Android Messaging

Apple today is rolling out iOS 18, introducing support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) to enhance messaging between iPhone and Android devices with features like typing indicators, read receipts, and higher resolution media. "However, there continues to be no end-to-end encryption (E2EE), with work towards that between Android and iOS continuing," notes 9to5Google. The feature will be enabled by default on iPhones with major U.S. carriers supported, but smaller MVNOs are not yet included.

Because China made them

[_xeno_]

This has nothing to do with Android interoperability and everything to do with China telling them to add RCS support or stop selling the iPhone in China.

Which is why you'll note that iOS RCS doesn't work everywhere yet. Apple is intentionally slow-rolling it, refusing to work with smaller carriers and insisting that they implement things on their backend to make it work, despite Android working just fine as-is.

Re:Because China made them

[blahbooboo]

No, the small carriers were taking their time to support RCS. This has little to do with Apple. https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]

Re:

[jonbryce]

But you can use it on Android with the small carriers.

Re: Because China made them

[jerrylucky]

The US carriers canâ(TM)t even get it working properly on Android to Android lmao

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Also to avoid yet another anti-competitive ruling by the European Union, perhaps? Apple's walled garden is being torn down, brick by brick, it seems.

Can Google add RCS support for Android?

[BerkeleyDude]

Can Google put some pressure on Google to add RCS support for Android?

No, seriously. I've been trying to get it working for years - and all I get is "RCS chats aren't available for this device". If Apple can make it work on iPhones, I'm sure Google can make it work on my OnePlus 8 device, too. In fact, what does hardware have to do with anything? This sounds like a software feature.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Seems to be a OnePlus issue. Instructions to enable it here: https://community.oneplus.com/... [oneplus.com]

It's been working for years on my Android devices. Nice that iPhone users are finally getting a useful upgrade.

Re:

[nicubunu]

My phone is too from a Chinese manufacturer... but as I live in the EU and do not plan to travel to China, I care little about their police listening on me, those whom I want not to listen on me are closer to home.

Re:

[TrancePhreak]

Are you sure about that. Article is from 2022, I saw people asking about this in 2024 as well. I don't know the answers from that inquery. https://www.semafor.com/articl... [semafor.com] https://www.europeaninterest.e... [europeaninterest.eu]

Re:

[ACForever]

Exactly this.

Had to turn it off

[DarkVader]

I've been using the beta for a bit. I had to turn it off because if it was on I was able to send messages to one Android user, for everybody else messages were just not delivered.

I suppose I'll try it again now that it's officially released. But I don't expect much.