Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Tl; DR
- Google finally begins to deploy the possibility for Android users to modify RCS messages sent to iPhones, a prohibited functionality previously unavailable.
- Rendered possible by the new Universal Profile 3.0 specification, users can press a message sent at length to modify and send it back in a 15 -minute window.
- The functionality is in limited test and is not yet perfect, because the texts published currently appear as a new message on iPhones and iPhones cannot change the messages sent to Android devices.
For years, text messaging between Android and iOS has been a terrible experience, but this has recently changed thanks to the rich communication services (RCS). This new messaging standard considerably improves SMS between iphones and androids by allowing features such as sharing high quality media, reading receipts and striking indicators. While some features lacked during the launch of RCS Multiplateforms last year, Google and Apple gradually introduce them. For example, the possibility of modifying a message sent from an Android phone to an iPhone finally begins to take place.
IPhone users have long been able to modify the iMessages sent to other iPhones, and Android users appreciated the same capacity for about a year when using RCS to send messaging. However, when Google launched this feature on Android for the first time, this was not part of the official RCS specification. Since Apple has based its implementation on the official standard at the time (Universal 2.4 profile) which did not define the edition of messages, the functionality was not available for multiplatform cats.
This changed earlier this year when the GSM association introduced the Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which adds both the edition of messages and end -to -end encryption. During last week, several users, including myself, have acquired the possibility of modifying RCS messages sent to iPhone users. After sending a message, I can say it for a long time to reveal a pencil icon. Truck on this icon fills the response box with the original text, allowing me to modify and send it back.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
This feature works for me when sending RCS messages to iPhone users running the latest stable version of iOS 18.5 and the beta iOS 26 version, in individual and group cats, in the 15-minute window that currently exists for edition of Android-Android and iPhone-IPhone messages.
Although it seems and operates as expected on the Android side, the modified message currently appears on the iPhone as a new message preceded by an asterisk. In addition, iPhone users are unable to modify RCS messages they send to Android users. Apple will probably have to update its application of messages to properly manage the editing of RCS messages, although there is no word at the time it could happen. We hope that the full management of the edition of messages will arrive alongside the encryption function from start to finish multiplatform that Apple and Google are committed to taking charge earlier this year.
The possibility of modifying RCS messages sent to iPhone users is not yet widely available in Google messages. I have only seen two other reports on the deployment of functionality: one of a Reddit user Last week and another of one of my subscribers today. Google is probably A / B test this with beta users, so most people will probably have to wait a wider version.
