Apple confirmed today that it plans to introduce support for Rich Communication Services, or RCS, in iOS 18 this fall. Apple software director Craig Federighi confirmed RCS support while unveiling new iPhone features at the WWDC keynote.
We’ve known about Apple’s plans to adopt RCS since last November, but Apple only gave a vague “later in 2024” timeline for adoption, so it wasn’t clear exactly when the feature might appear. RCS replaces SMS/MMS as the default communication protocol on iPhone.
RCS has already been adopted by Google, US smartphone carriers and other companies, so Apple is a bit late to the party. It doesn’t change much for iMessage, but it does overhaul the way iPhones interact with Android devices. RCS improves text messaging with Android users by adding support for features previously limited to iMessage. Some of the additions:
- Support for higher resolution photos and videos.
- Support for larger file sizes and file sharing.
- Audio messages.
- Cross-platform emoji reactions.
- Real-time typing indicators.
- Read receipts.
- Ability to send messages over cellular network or Wi-Fi (SMS is cellular only). There is no cost to send an RCS message over Wi-Fi.
- Improved group chats.
It’s unclear whether Apple will roll out RCS support during the iOS 18 beta testing period or hold off on the feature until the update’s public release this fall, but we know it’s indeed tied to iOS 18 at this point.
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