With iOS 18, Apple has finally adopted RCS messaging, ending years of incompatibility between iMessage and Android. But the announcement was not as subtle as expected. Instead of showing how RCS will vastly improve communication, Apple quietly announced support for the standard and instead focused on the features coming to iMessage users.
Apple’s RCS announcement went unnoticed
Apple didn’t even specify that RCS messaging would allow iPhone and Android users to send high-resolution pictures and videos to each other, or that RCS would provide cross-platform support for read receipts and write indicators.
The company also buried RCS on the iOS 18 preview page. It doesn’t even refer to Android users by name: “RCS (Rich Communication Services) messages bring richer media and delivery and read receipts for those not using iMessage.” The attached image shows an RCS chat on an iPhone with green bubbles indicating that the person you are messaging is not using an iPhone.
Apple highlighted flashy features that will only come to iMessage, such as ways to make text bold or italicized in texts, improvements to Tapbacks, and the ability to schedule a text.
Apple was so quiet in announcing RCS that it was as if it didn’t think it was worth showing off. In an environment where all Android users are trying to convince iPhone users to download a third-party messaging app to receive pictures and videos from the 21st century, the long-awaited merger of iPhone and Android’s messaging systems has escaped attention.
Unfortunately, the long-awaited merger of iPhone and Android’s messaging systems has been drowned out by alarming AI-generated emoji and dangling iMessage bubbles. Despite Apple’s ignorance of the situation, I’m just excited to finally be able to exchange pictures and videos from the 21st century with iPhone-using friends and family members.
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