Apple is bringing RCS to the iPhone in iOS 18

The long-awaited day is here: Apple has announced that its Messages app will support RCS in iOS 18. The new standard will replace SMS as the default communication protocol between Android and iOS devices. The move comes after years of taunting, cajoling, and finally, some regulatory scrutiny from the EU.

Unfortunately, we don’t know much else other than the fact that it’s coming in iOS 18. Apple’s website on the upcoming release does at least include one example of how RCS will look on iPhones. “RCS” appears in the text field to indicate a connection, but otherwise, it’s all pretty standard.

Right now, when people on iOS and Android message each other, the service falls back to SMS — photos and videos are sent at a lower quality, messages are shortened, and importantly, conversations are not end-to-end encrypted like they are in iMessage. Messages from Android phones show up as green bubbles in iMessage chats, and chaos ensues.

RCS, or Rich Communication Services, was developed as a replacement to SMS. RCS offers typing indicators and read receipts, allows you to send longer messages, and supports higher-quality images and videos. In other words, it’s a lot like iMessage. It’s become the standard messaging protocol on Android phones as US wireless carriers fully adopted it over the past five years, but Apple has been stubbornly withholding support. Starting with iOS 18, some of those iMessage-like features will finally be available in cross-platform chats.

Pressure campaigns from Google and Samsung to adopt RCS probably aren’t what pushed Apple past the tipping point. The company announced in November — seemingly out of the blue — that it would add RCS support in the upcoming year. But the timing was probably no coincidence; Apple’s announcement was likely an effort to appease EU regulators.