The biggest updates coming to Apple’s iMessage and its Messages app in iOS 18 aren’t its AI emoji, Genmoji, or even the ability to send texts via satellite.
Because of Apple’s longtime refusal to add support for RCS, texting with Android users meant no typing indicators or read receipts, broken group chats, and blurry photos and videos.
Instead, the text box indicates in a light gray font that your texts with someone support both “Text message + RCS,” while the texts themselves are still green.
However, issues that make the Messages app a broken experience for Apple’s customers will be addressed, it seems, as Apple says it will support the standard later this year.
That’s likely why there was no mention of encrypted messaging in Apple’s announcement of RCS.
Google said today it is partnering with RapidSOS, a platform for emergency first responders, to enable users to contact 911 through RCS (Rich Messaging Service).
Initially, this feature will be available only to Google Messages users.
According to AccesSOS, a non-profit working on emergency contact, only 54% of 911 call centers in the U.S. provide text-to-911 services.
As this feature is based on RCS, which enables rich messaging and media support, users can send pictures and videos to emergency services for better context.
Plus, Android’s emergency location services can provide information such as accurate location and device language to emergency responders to better help people in need and opt-in medical information.
Google hints that Apple is set to support RCS by this fallGoogle briefly showed a section on the new Google Messages page claiming that Apple is set to roll out Rich Communication Services (RCS) support for iPhones this fall.
This indicates that the iPhone maker is likely to extend RCS support in with the upcoming iOS 18 update.
“Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024.
Last November, Apple confirmed that it was working on adding support for RCS.
Google’s partial reveal about the RCS compatibility timeline for iPhones comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is starting a legal battle against Apple over the Cupertino-based company’s monopolistic practices.
But one category in particular caught our attention as the DOJ spends quite a bit of time talking about “green bubbles” and “blue bubbles.”When an iPhone user sends a message to another iPhone user, by default that message is sent using Apple’s iMessage protocol.
If an iPhone user texts an Android user — and vice versa — iOS falls back to the older, less secure but universal SMS protocol.
“Apple makes third-party messaging apps on the iPhone worse generally and relative to Apple Messages, Apple’s own messaging app,” the DOJ wrote in its lawsuit.
At this point, you might think: wasn’t the RCS protocol supposed to level up SMS messaging and alleviate these pain points?
It feels a bit odd that the DOJ is front-loading its antitrust lawsuit against Apple with the much talked about “green bubbles” vs. “blue bubbles” debate as there are far more serious and substantive issues.
