In a surprising announcement, Apple revealed today that it'll adopt the RCS standard for iPhones. The feature will launch later in 2024.
The Rich Communication Standard (RCS) will apparently be adopted by Apple. As first reported by 9to5mac, Apple announced that it'll bring RCS to iPhones "later next year" through a software update.
This announcement comes amid pressure from the European Union's Digital Markets Act that pushes for interoperability, and criticism from competitors like Samsung, Google, and Nothing.
Apple: "RCS will offer a better interoperability."
According to an Apple spokesperson, the RCS standard could improve the messaging experience between Android and iOS devices.
We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.
Apple
Some of the "iMessage-style" cross-platform features through the new standard will include:
- read receipts
- typing indicators (the famous three dots)
- high-quality images and videos
- sharing the location with others inside a text message thread
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It's unclear at this point whether the color differentiation between the blue bubbles (iMessage) and green bubbles (currently used for SMS or MMS from other operating systems) will remain.
For users, it'll improve the experience of sending messages between iPhones and Android phones.
Is iMessage opening up to other platforms?
No, Apple isn't opening up iMessage. Rather, it's adopting RCS into its messaging channel. So, for communication between iPhones, iMessage will remain the channel for all iPhone messaging, while RCS will work separately from iMessage whenever available.
The idea is to replace SMS and MMS with RCS. However, SMS and MMS remain as a fallback option.
Apple points out that iMessage is still more secure than RCS because it has stronger encryption protocols than RCS. The company has said that it wants to work on ways to make RCS more secure in the future.
Why is Apple adopting RCS?
It's unclear why Apple suddenly decided to bring RCS to iPhones, as Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, has stated in the past that the tech company had no such plans. He famously suggested to "buy your mom an iPhone" when a journalist asked how to fix compatibility issues he experienced when texting his mother from an iPhone to an Android phone.
Apple's competitors have long asked for RCS support, and most recently phone company Nothing decided to integrate iMessage into their Android devices.
At the same time, there's also pressure from the European Union's Digital Markets Act that could require Apple legally to offer interoperability. Apple is supposedly drafting an appeal to the European Union's General Court. The deadline for the appeal is today.
