Apple to add support for RCS messaging with Android from next year

News
By Stephen Warwick
published

A massive change.

iPhone 14 with messages app open being held in front of green wall
(Image credit: John-Anthony Disotto)

Apple has announced that it will be adding support for RCS messaging on iPhone from early next year. 

As reported by our friends at TechRadar, RCS is a communications system developed by the GSM Association and used across most of the Android ecosystem. Apple's refusal to support the standard has been a source of much discontent because its adoption on iPhone would bring much better interoperability between iPhone and Android when it comes to sending messages. 

It's possible support will end the classic Green and Blue bubble divide that has plagued the two camps. 

"Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe the RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users," Apple said in a statement. 

No more blue and green?

According to the report Apple has acknowledged "that RCS is an improvement over MMS and SMS but made it clear that RCS is not replacing iMessage and its host of features like memojies, stickers, and the ability to edit and unsend messages." 

RCS will come to the iPhone in a software update and then it's up to carriers to add it. The only timeframe given is "early next year." 

While this has been touted as an end to the aforementioned green bubble issue, there's nothing to indicate that Apple won't keep its shiny blue bubbles for iMessage while leaving RCS messages green, just like it does with SMS or MMS. Further details reveal Apple will not support any extensions that try to add encryption on top of RCS, which will be interesting given RCS messages are not end-to-end encrypted, unlike iMessage. As 9to5Mac notes, it will bring some cool features like read receipts, better quality images, and typing indicators. 

It follows a bizarre story this week in which Nothing revealed it had created a way to send iMessage from Android with a very sketchy workaround that involves giving the company your Apple ID username and password. 

Whether this step paves the way for iMessage on Android devices and beyond is another story entirely, and nothing about Apple adopting RCS will require the company to make its iMessage service any more open or interoperable. This is at least some good news for users communicating between the two platforms. 

Given this will be a software update, we can assume this is a feature coming to all of Apple's iPhone range supported by iOS 17, including its best iPhone the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. 

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • FFR
    Sure they will. …….just won’t work with googles version
    Reply
  • EdwinG
    That’s a plot twist!
    Reply
  • SvenJ
    FFR said:
    Sure they will. …….just won’t work with googles version
    That may take a little explaining as to why it is true. It's not because Apple will do it 'intentioally'. Apple will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. That is not what Google Messages uses. It uses a highly adapted version of that which relies on Google servers, not carriers, to support it. So while there will likely be some level of compatibility, all the things that RCS isn't, that Google added on top of it, won't work. That includes things like group encryption. I believe stock GSM Association RCS has added point to point. That's one thing that SMS has never had.
    Reply
  • Just_Me_D
    What is interesting to me is this:

    “…there's nothing to indicate that Apple won't keep its shiny blue bubbles for iMessage while leaving RCS messages green, just like it does with SMS or MMS.”

    The blue v green chat bubble is the driving force behind the push toward RCS, in my opinion, so it’s going to be quite interesting whenever the software update arrives sometime next year.
    Reply
  • FFR
    SvenJ said:
    That may take a little explaining as to why it is true. It's not because Apple will do it 'intentioally'. Apple will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. That is not what Google Messages uses. It uses a highly adapted version of that which relies on Google servers, not carriers, to support it. So while there will likely be some level of compatibility, all the things that RCS isn't, that Google added on top of it, won't work. That includes things like group encryption. I believe stock GSM Association RCS has added point to point. That's one thing that SMS has never had.

    Doesn’t need that much explaining.

    Apple is adopting rcs, the Gsma version that is not compatible with googles rcs jibe version.

    Googles rcs requires messages to go through google servers instead of the carriers.

    Still green bubbles though
    Reply
  • mech1164
    Well H*ll froze over, more likely this is to placate to some extent the EU from ongoing legislation. Now is this going to work perfectly? Heck no, this is Apple for crying out loud. There will be a bare minimum they'll do to have this work. Will it be better than SMS/MMS? Yep it sure will. Now we'll have to see when they decide to pull the trigger and update all this. My guess December 31 2024 @ 11:59:59. Still late next year,,,,,
    Reply
  • FFR
    Ofcourse they will.

    Reply