Apple Adds RCS Messaging Support in iOS 18 Beta

Our long national nightmare has come to an end—the iPhone’s green bubble era is ending. Fulfilling a promise made earlier this year, Apple has released the new iOS 18 developer beta, and sure enough, it supports the RCS messaging standard. That means messages from modern Android phones will no longer lock you into an inferior green bubble conversation.

Apple turned heads when it launched iMessage way back in 2011. By intercepting messages to and from other iPhones, Apple was able to provide expanded messaging features. However, messaging with Android devices fell back to the ancient SMS standard. This helped Apple lock customers into its ecosystem—it didn’t even have a method of disconnecting your phone number from iMessage until 2014 after users started to complain.

Carriers and trade groups promoted the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard, which offers features similar to iMessage, such as longer messages, HD media, and read receipts. However, RCS was slow to evolve as there was no driving force behind the technology until Google realized people cared about not being a green bubble. Although Android messages will still appear in green bubbles, they will have expanded features similar to iMessage.

Some companies even tried to hack their way into iMessage, but Apple worked to block these third-party apps. Apple was technically within its rights to restrict access to iMessage, but its refusal to support RCS when it controls half the smartphones in the country was not a good look. Google regularly lambasted Apple for blocking RCS, and regulators were beginning to take notice. The Justice Department’s 2024 antitrust case against Apple cites CEO Tim Cook’s infamous “Buy your mom an iPhone” statement. Apple probably knew it was only a matter of time before it was forced to allow RCS messaging on the iPhone, so it got ahead of things.

Credit: PCMag

While RCS support will be available globally, this change will have the biggest impact in the US, where people rely on carrier networks for messaging. In most other regions, users rely on apps like WhatsApp or Telegram for messaging. Apple’s implementation of RCS will depend on carriers to update their mobile service bundles. So far, only the big three US carriers (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile) have made the necessary changes. It will be a struggle to get RCS support working on the iPhone everywhere, but that process will kick off in earnest when the final iOS 18 begins rolling out.

The second developer beta, which finally added RCS support, is the last restricted test. If the carrier supports RCS, the toggle will be under Settings > Apps > Messages. In the coming weeks, Apple will release the public beta build, and the final version will roll out to all supported iPhones in September with RCS in tow.