It finally happened. Last week, Apple confirmed that with iOS 18, which should arrive in 2025, Iphones will support RCS messaging, providing a long -awaited upgrade to conversations between iPhone and Android users. The change will finally replace the obsolete SMS and MMS system that made Android-Iphone texts feels like a nostalgia trip in the early 2000s.
Android and iPhone users will soon appreciate modern chat features such as reading receipts, typing indicators, high quality photos and videos, and better group cats – all from their default email applications. For people in the United States, where SMS between these platforms are still based on clumsy SMS, it changes the situation.
What is RCS?
RCS which represents Rich communication servicesis the replacement of new generation for SMS and MMS. It brings the type of messaging functionalities that applications like WhatsApp, Signal and Imessage users have held for granted for years. These include:
- Read receipts This lets you know that your message has been seen.
- Entry indicators This show when someone responds.
- End -to -end encryption for certain conversationsAccording to the carrier.
- High resolution photos and videosInstead of potato quality supports sent via MMS.
Android users have used RCS via Google’s messages for years. But when sending an iPhone sending, conversations have always been lacking Basic SMS, without rich features and bad media compression. This was possible thanks to the status signifier that Apple has in the United States. The iPhone is so widespread, in fact, that it has a market share of 57.6% in the United States.
With Apple’s decision to support RC in iOS 18, This gap finally endsMake cats between iPhone and Android users resembles Imessage – or at least much closer to him. Suddenly, Android users will not be considered as parias (or bullies) Who cannot afford to buy an iPhone.
But some things will not change. RCS messages will always appear in the form of green bubbles on iPhones, and Imessage will remain a only Apple functionality for conversations between iPhones.
So yes, the stigma of green bubbles could survive, but at least now, these green bubbles will come with the modern features that you expect from a messaging application in 2025.
Why did Apple finally gave and added RCS?
Apple has long resisted the addition of RCS, saying that Imessage has already given iPhone users a higher experience. But the pressure of regulators – especially in Europe – finally pushed the apple to act.
THE European Union digital markets Large technological companies have forced to open certain services for competition, and messaging was one of the areas where Apple’s enclosed garden was faced with a meticulous examination.
Google has also spent years pushing (and dragging) for Apple years to adopt RCs, but it was the regulatory pressure that sealed the agreement. Apple argues that Maping will remain exclusive to its ecosystem, and the addition of RCS consists only of improving SMS for Android users – not to open Imessage to foreigners.
United States against Europe in messaging habits
In the United States and Canada, SMS The help has been obstinately remained to send SMS between Android and iPhone users, keeping the experience stuck in the past.
Compare this to Western Europe, Latin America and a large part of Asia, Or Whatsapp dominates messaging whatever the phone brand. There, most people jumped directly to WhatsApp years ago, and SMS is considered a relic of the past – used for things like two -factor codes and spam.
In North America, Imessage loyalty kept users related to SMS during discussion with Android users, despite the bad experience. Now, with RCS coming to iPhones, American and Canadian users will finally appreciate the messaging of features that Europeans have used on WhatsApp for ages.
Is SMS finally dead?
With this movement, SMS and MMS could finally take a rear seat – at least between the smartphones. RCS is not perfect (it always requires a data connection and has carrier quirks) but it is a huge step compared to SMS / MMS, which even lacks basic safety or quality of the media.
Although the iPhone against Android rivalry does not disappear so early, this change makes SMS between the two worlds much less frustrating.
