Google Gets Excited About RCS Coming to the iPhone

Apple really has committed to bringing RCS support to its Messages app when iOS 18 releases later this year. For beta testers of iOS, you can already send RCS messages to your Android friends. It’s a big deal, for the most part, because it should improve the messaging experience between the two biggest mobile platforms.

To continue to celebrate the moment, Google has released a new video called “RCS and the future of cross-platform texting.” It’s a short 30-second clip that highlights what Android and iPhone users can expect once iOS 18 lands everywhere.

The video starts off by confirming that RCS “is finally coming to iPhones,” which is fun. But most importantly, Google is confirming that there will be “No more blur between Android and iPhones,” because you can send higher-res video and photos. They also say that there will be “No more broken group chats,” that read receipts and typing indicators are here, and that everyone will simply have “better messaging.”

Tim and I have actually tested RCS between an iPhone and Android device and the experience is fine. I can’t say that it seems that much different than before, but we’ll do our best to really dive in as it evolves before iOS 18 launches. If anything, we can confirm that you can send and receive better quality images and see read receipts. That’s neat.

When is iOS 18 releasing? Probably in late September when the iPhone 16 series is ready.