How to Improve Text Messaging on Android in IOS 18
Sending text messages to Android phones from iPhones is finally becoming a lot less stupid. After years of complaints from people on both sides of the fence, Apple is finally bringing RCS to the iPhone . A more robust messaging standard will replace SMS when communicating with Android phones, allowing for more secure text messages and higher quality image and video sharing, more like messaging between two iPhones. iPhones will continue to use their own standard when communicating with each other, although since this standard is dependent on an Internet connection, they will also be able to rely on RCS in situations where it is not available.
RCS will even let you send reactions to Android phones, just like using iMessage to communicate with another iPhone. Androids started accessing RCS when communicating with each other in 2019, and I was disappointed by the lack of these features when communicating with iPhones.
The arrival of RCS on the iPhone is perhaps one of the biggest changes coming to smartphones with iOS 18. That’s because many have been waiting a long time for Apple to adopt the new text messaging standard, and the Department of Justice has even been involved in the situation in the past.
There’s also a caveat: RCS on iPhone won’t completely eliminate the absurd blue/green bubble divide , since RCS messages are still green in iOS. But we hope this will help alleviate some concerns about how insecure regular SMS services are , while also giving iPhone and Android users a more meaningful communication experience.
How to try RCS on iPhone
If you don’t want to wait for the full release of iOS 18 later this year, you can get ahead of the game and try RCS on iPhone right now. To do this, you’ll need to update your compatible iPhone to the latest iOS 18 beta ( developer beta 2 at the time of writing) . Your carrier will also need to enable this feature on their network.
RCS should be turned on by default when you install the latest iOS 18 beta. But just in case it isn’t, here’s how to find the switch for it.
-
Open Settings on your iPhone.
-
Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click Apps .
-
Find “Messages” in the list (or find it at the top) and click on it.
-
Scroll down until you see RCS Messaging . Make sure it’s turned on.
-
Open a conversation with a non-iPhone user and, if RCS is supported, the message field will say Text Message – RCS .
As I noted above, an important component of using RCS in iOS 18 Beta 2 is whether your carrier supports it. I’ve seen posts from friends at AT&T that they can use RCS to send text messages in Beta 2, and I was able to use it myself on T-Mobile. However, I have yet to find any confirmation that Verizon users are currently using RCS on iPhone, at least as of press time. However, the situation may change over the next day, hour or even minutes as telecom operators enable support on their server.