Apple in mid-November introduced that it’s going to undertake Wealthy Communication Companies (RCS) in 2024, upgrading messaging requirements for non-iMessage conversations. Apple’s information got here as a shock as a result of Google had been aggressively pushing Apple to implement RCS for a number of years, however Apple hadn’t budged.
This information explains all the pieces that you have to find out about RCS, together with the way it works, how you may apply it to Apple units, why Apple determined to undertake it now, and the advantages you can anticipate to see when assist is added.
RCS Defined
Wealthy Communication Companies, or RCS, is a communication protocol developed by the GSM Affiliation and championed by Google. As a communication protocol, RCS is utilized by smartphone producers and carriers to ship text-based messages, pictures, and movies between units. It is principally what is going to energy the textual content messages that you simply ship to individuals together with your iPhone and different Apple units.
RCS is a alternative for SMS (Quick Messaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), each of that are used for knowledge sharing over mobile networks. RCS combines the options of SMS and MMS, and provides further performance. Will probably be what lets you ship texts to individuals who do not have iPhones for iMessage.
RCS Options
There are an a variety of benefits to RCS in comparison with the prior MMS and SMS options. A lot of the enhancements will likely be seen in iPhone to Android chats as a result of for conversations between Apple gadget homeowners, iMessage will proceed to be the default.
- Assist for greater decision images and movies.
- Assist for bigger file sizes and file sharing.
- Audio messages.
- Cross-platform emoji reactions.
- Actual-time typing indicators.
- Learn receipts.
- Means to ship messages over mobile or Wi-Fi (SMS is mobile solely). There isn’t a price to ship an RCS message over Wi-Fi.
- Improved group chats.
- Higher safety. Google’s model of RCS has end-to-end encryption, which Apple doesn’t intend to make use of. Apple will as an alternative work with the GSMA to develop a safer type of encryption that’s baked natively into RCS.
RCS vs SMS/MMS
SMS or Quick Messaging Service is supported by nearly all cellphones, and it’s designed to permit you to ship textual content messages from gadget to gadget. It’s accompanied by the Cell Messaging Service extension that helps images, movies, and longer textual content messages. Each of those requirements have been round for greater than 20 years and have fallen behind extra trendy chat apps by way of options.
RCS is actually a modernized model of SMS/MMS that carriers and good telephone producers began adopting proper round a decade in the past, but it surely has taken time for it to be supported and never all firms have added assist (equivalent to Apple), so the extra common (and extra restricted) SMS/MMS requirements have caught round too.
Maybe one of many greatest adjustments is the way in which that SMS/MMS and RCS work. SMS and MMS are service supported and require a mobile connection to operate. RCS is supported by carriers, however RCS messages could be despatched over a mobile or Wi-Fi connection, much like iMessages, so there is no particular mobile connection requirement.
RCS is in actual fact rather more like WhatsApp, iMessage, Messenger, and related chat apps, however baked right into a smartphone’s default textual content messaging app. It helps options that SMS/MMS don’t, like typing indicators, high-resolution pictures, file transfers, and video calls.
RCS and iMessage
RCS works alongside iMessage, and it doesn’t change iMessage. For iPhone to iPhone conversations and texts on any Apple gadget to a different Apple gadget, iMessage would be the default.
After RCS assist is carried out, in case you flip off iMessage in your iPhone, it’s going to seemingly default to RCS on supported units as that would be the textual content messaging customary for non-iMessage communications.
iMessage will proceed to operate precisely because it does now with no change for communications between Apple gadget customers.
What RCS Means for iPhone Customers
When you’ve got associates or relations which have an Android gadget, you may see an enchancment in among the frustrations that include cross-platform messaging.
Group texts between Android and iPhone customers will likely be much less buggy, and there will not be the identical limitations on picture and video dimension that may trigger media to not ship. The tapback reactions that you simply use on an iPhone can have an emoji response equal on Android, so tapbacks will not be fairly as complicated to your Android utilizing associates.
Learn receipts and typing indicators will likely be accessible for iPhone to Android communications and will not simply be restricted to iPhone to iPhone iMessages when RCS rolls out.
Normally, iPhone homeowners and people with different Apple units do not want to consider RCS or fear about it. It is a change that is going to occur within the background with no consumer interplay required. Communication will not be altering between iPhones, and between iPhone and Android customers, messaging would be the similar, however improved by way of reliability.
RCS and Android
Textual content conversations with Android customers are the first manner iPhone customers will expertise RCS when it comes out. RCS will solely be accessible when all contributors within the dialog have a tool and a service that assist it, however that ought to embody most Android customers in america.
Android units have had RCS for a while as Google and Samsung have supported it for a number of years and had been pushing Apple to undertake it.
Proper now, sharing images and movies with Android customers could be difficult for an iPhone consumer, and typically images and movies are too massive or will not ship. There are additionally typically points with group conversations between Android and iPhone customers, each by way of supported options and stability.
Speaking to an Android consumer ought to be much less of a trouble than it’s now when RCS rolls out as a result of options like emoji reactions will likely be supported, there will likely be typing indicators, and information and pictures shouldn’t fail to ship.
Inexperienced Bubbles vs. Blue Bubbles
Whereas it will likely be much less irritating to speak with “inexperienced bubble” individuals on an Apple gadget, chat bubble colours are usually not altering.
iMessage conversations will proceed to be denoted with blue chat bubbles, and RCS messages will proceed to be inexperienced, the identical as SMS/MMS messages at the moment are. Notice that SMS and MMS aren’t going away. They will proceed to be accessible on networks that do not assist RCS and in conditions the place RCS is unavailable.
RCS requires all the units collaborating in a dialog to have assist for the characteristic, and the community must assist it too. So in case you occur to message somebody who makes use of a service that does not assist RCS or who has RCS turned off, it’s going to fall again to SMS.
A Notice on Encryption
Google’s implementation of RCS for Google Messages helps end-to-end encryption on Android units, however it’s value noting that Apple is adopting the RCS Common Profile created by the GSM Affiliation and never a model of RCS modified by Google. RCS messages will likely be safer, however will not be end-to-end encrypted as iMessage conversations are, at the very least not till updates are made to the usual.
Apple says that it plans to work with the GSM Affiliation on additional enhancements for RCS, together with higher encryption.
RCS Worldwide
Google, Samsung, and all U.S. carriers have adopted RCS, however in some international locations, native carriers might want to add assist earlier than RCS between iPhones and different units will likely be purposeful.
Why Is Apple Supporting RCS Now?
Google has been virtually begging Apple to implement assist for RCS since 2022, launching an internet site, beginning a social media marketing campaign, filming adverts, and establishing billboards all with the intention of convincing Apple to assist the messaging customary.
In September 2022, Tim Prepare dinner mentioned that adopting RCS was not a precedence for Apple. “I do not hear our customers asking that we put a variety of vitality into that at this level,” he mentioned. So what’s modified? It is not fully clear, however regulatory points have seemingly performed an element.
Apple is going through scrutiny over App Retailer, iMessage, and different proprietary applied sciences in a number of international locations world wide, so by adopting a common messaging customary, Apple is exhibiting a willingness to assist gadget interoperability.
Within the European Union, legislators are growing legal guidelines that might require Apple to make adjustments to iMessage to make it accessible on different platforms in order that iMessage customers aren’t locked in to Apple units. With RCS, iMessage can have fewer advantages which can be unavailable cross-platform, and nearer characteristic parity will likely be accessible on iPhone and Android units.
When Will Apple Undertake RCS?
Apple mentioned that it plans to undertake RCS “later subsequent yr,” which suggests in some unspecified time in the future in 2024. The “later” wording means that it might come extra towards the tip of the yr, maybe in iOS 18, however that isn’t confirmed as of but.