Apple Reportedly Bringing RCS Support to iPhone Next Year

Apple could be making a big step towards improving texting between its iPhone and Android devices by adopting the RCS standard in 2024.

According to 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson told the outlet in a statement that RCS — a more feature-rich texting standard that’s so far been available on Android phones — will be coming to the iPhone and would work alongside iMessage. CNET has reached out to Apple and Google for confirmation.

“Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to 9to5Mac. “This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.”

While an exact timeframe wasn’t given. This may lead to a vast improvement to how texts are sent between Apple’s iPhone and non-Apple phones, as RCS has the capability to support typing indicators, high quality media sharing and in-line reactions. Currently RCS handles these features for texts between Android phones that are using the Google Messages app, which is the default texting app on most Android phones. 

Should this indeed take place, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of Apple’s best iMessage features would suddenly be available to Android users. Both Apple and Google have included their own exclusive features in their texting apps, such as Apple’s Check In feature for location sharing or Google’s Magic Compose feature that uses artificial intelligence to draft texts. It also might not mean the death of the green bubble vs. blue bubble situation.

Story is developing.