Big win for Google! Apple announces RCS support for iPhone starting next year

Finally caving to pressure from Google, Samsung, and regulators, Apple announced today that starting in 2024, the iPhone will support Rich Communication Services (RCS). According to 9to5Mac, this will be accomplished via a software update that the company says it will disseminate "later next year" and will allow messaging between the two platforms to include many iMessage features.

Make no mistake about it, this is a huge win for Google as the latter had pressured Apple starting in 2022 to add support for RCS. Samsung joined the battle earlier this year. Currently, when an Android user chats with an iPhone user, or joins a group chat made up of iPhone owners, the chat switches from iMessage on iOS (and RCS on Android) to SMS/MMS, all of the special iMessage/RCS features are disabled, and photos and videos are shared in low quality. This will change once Apple starts supporting RCS.

RCS already has many of the same features found on iMessage such as read receipts, typing indicators, end-to-end encryption, high-quality photos and videos, and the ability to send longer messages. And RCS works over mobile data and Wi-Fi, unlike SMS/MMS. Apple's support of RCS could stop the bullying of Android users by teens that takes place when one joins a chat made up of teenage iPhone users.

While Apple could continue to use green text bubbles for Android and keep the blue text bubbles for iOS users, RCS support should give both iOS and Android users access to the same features that iMessage offers. At the end of the day, this could eliminate the teasing and bullying that teenage Android users have had to deal with from teen iPhone users for years.

Apple had been loathe to support RCS because it considers iMessage a major selling point for iPhone buyers. But iMessage is not disappearing from the iPhone at all; once RCS support is implemented by Apple, RCS will be a separate messaging platform from iMessage that can be used when available. SMS/MMS will still be offered as a backup.

The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) almost forced Apple to support RCS earlier this year. However, Apple got a temporary reprieve when iMessage was not deemed to be large enough to be considered a "gatekeeper," and today's announcement helps Apple get ahead of any forced acceptance of RCS.

The main thing to keep in mind is that iMessage will remain the platform used by iPhone users when messaging each other one-on-one or in a group. RCS will be a separate platform that can be used when iPhone users want to message Android users. If you've ever seen how poor the image quality is of photographs and videos shared between an Android user and an iPhone user, you'll be looking forward to the day when Apple's support of RCS begins.