Apple is bringing RCS support to iPhones: What does this mean for you

In a move that no one expected, Apple announced that iPhones would finally support RCS texting – for years they’ve been pressured to do so by Google and Android, and, out of the blue, they caved in.

This announcement’s importance goes beyond just smartphone communication and into the matters of social fabric itself. See, the “Blue vs green bubble wars” is a thing that preoccupies the minds not just of tech users, but also parents, psychologists, and even celebrities.

But what does RCS support on iPhones mean for you? Let’s go and dive a bit deeper into it.

What is RCS (Rich Communication Services)?

Technically speaking, RCS is a communication protocol for a text-message system to succeed SMS. In contrast to the outdated (but nevertheless important and irreplaceable) SMS system, RCS needs a data plan or Wi-Fi to function. RCS supports longer texts, high-resolution multimedia, read receipts, encryption, and more.

In different parts of the world, it’s branded differently, but you’ve probably encountered one of its various namings: Advanced Messaging, joyn, SMSoIP, Message+, or SMS+.

The origins of RCS (and why SMS will not go away)

RCS has been developed and talked about for over 15 years (it was proposed to the GSM Association in 2007), but it was only after Google decided to invest heavily in it in 2015 and design RCS as the successor to the SMS message protocol.

The SMS technology was developed in the 80s – SMS stands for Short Message Service and is commonly known as texting. It’s a way to send text-only messages of up to 160 characters between phones. In December 1992, a test SMS saying “Merry Christmas” was sent by Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth to his boss – some say that’s the first message sent in the history of SMS. By 1995, most carriers had launched SMS commercially.

SMS provides stability and reliability – every phone and carrier nowadays supports it, so owners of Nokia 3310 can get in touch with those who own the latest Galaxy Ultra from the flagship S line. SMS also doesn’t require a data plan or Wi-Fi, because SMS texts travel over the same channels as voice calls. Yet, the SMS technology is extremely limited in terms of features and – most importantly – security.

Android and Apple still communicate via SMS

If you’re wondering why we’re talking so extensively about SMS, it’s because 30 years later after its commercial mass launch, when an Android phone user texts an iPhone, the message is still SMS. What a shame!

That’s why the messages one gets on their iPhone from Android are in green bubbles – to indicate that this is SMS, not iMessage (Apple’s messaging service that requires a data plan or a Wi-Fi connection and offers so much more than SMS, but later on that).

RCS vs iMessage

RCS ensures support for much longer messages, high-resolution photos and videos, read receipts of the texts, typing indicators, group chats, stickers, reactions, and more.

There are two major variations of the RCS – the RCS Universal Standard and Google’s version of the RCS technology. The two are compatible, but Google has added some extra layers on top of it that the Universal Standard lacks – like the end-to-end message encryption.

It sounds all too familiar with Apple’s iMessage, but there are differences between the two, as iMessage offers stickers and Memojis, as well as the ability to edit or unsend a message.

Great, so now Apple and Android owners can text each other encrypted? Not so fast…

When is RCS coming to iPhones?

It’s expected that the RCS support on iPhones will go live sometime in 2024. Apple hasn’t provided us with a pinpoint date, but it’s common sense to expect RCS support with the release of iOS 18.

RCS impact on iPhone users

The devil is in the details, as they say. The detail here is that Apple will not support Google’s proprietary extension to RCS, but only the baseline RCS Universal Standard. This means no E2EE (end-to-end encryption) when Apple and Android users text each other. Apple says that it will work with the GSM Association on ways to further improve the baseline RCS protocol.

The rest of the texting experience, though, will be vastly improved once RCS is introduced to iPhones. Let’s summarize what Android and Apple users will get with RCS support from Apple:

• Texting via Wi-Fi and mobile data
• Read receipts
• Typing indicators
• Location sharing
• High-resolution photos/videos

For iPhone-to-iPhone texting, nothing will change with the iMessage service once RCS is adopted.

Will the green bubbles finally go away?

No. Apple has stated that with the introduction of RCS support the green bubbles that iPhone users get when an SMS/MMS message arrives will still be a thing. Some hope that Apple at least chooses to use a different shade of green to differentiate between SMS/MMS and RCS.