Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Many Android customers anecdotally report that much more of their iPhone contacts have lately begun utilizing RCS to message.
- Apple highlighted the brand new iOS 18.1.1 safety replace as a really helpful replace and will have pushed it out to extra customers to replace.
- This probably pressured replace to iOS 18.1.1 finally means a greater messaging expertise between iPhone and Android customers.
RCS is the massive revolution that guarantees to deliver down the boundaries between inexperienced and blue bubbles, however it nonetheless has some methods to go earlier than reaching that goal. Though Apple took the step to incorporate RCS help on iPhones with the iOS 18 replace, there are nonetheless a couple of vital hurdles for RCS adoption on iPhones. Nevertheless, customers are noticing an uptick in iPhone customers leaping onto the RCS bandwagon, so there’s positively some enchancment on the way in which.
Though iPhones now help RCS, Apple doesn’t spotlight this to customers prefer it naturally does with its personal providers. The truth is, it’s essential to align a couple of issues earlier than you can begin utilizing RCS on an iPhone. For one, your service must help RCS, which, fortunately, the three main carriers within the US and most of the smaller ones do. Subsequent, customers must replace to iOS 18, the model that flips the swap for RCS help.
After these steps, iPhone customers can use RCS, however their Android family and friends additionally must have RCS enabled for the dialog to show into an RCS chat. Apple has enabled RCS chat by default on iPhones, however it doesn’t damage to double-check whether it is enabled in Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.
As you’ll be able to see, a stunning variety of stars should align earlier than an iPhone person can ship an RCS message to an Android person, and the Android person can truly obtain it. Compounding this drawback is the truth that many iPhone customers are surprisingly torpid in accepting and putting in iOS updates, mistrusting all such updates basically and holding them off so long as they will. Many additionally merely would not have the required obtainable storage to obtain and set up giant OS updates.
Reddit person GreenMonkey333 observed that a lot of their non-RCS iPhone contacts lately jumped to RCS, speculating that Apple most likely pressured an replace. Many different Redditors chimed in settlement, with some speculating that the latest iOS 18.1.1 safety replace, which Apple highlights as a really helpful replace for all customers, most likely pressured plenty of figuring out and unknowing holdouts to replace to the most recent iOS model.
This seemingly has introduced on a wave of latest iPhone RCS customers, a lot to the reduction of their Android family and friends, who can now lastly take pleasure in richer conversations with them in comparison with plain and boring SMS. It’s additionally doable that the Thanksgiving break gave folks the room to replace their telephones.
Additional, this aligns with latest selections on the Android aspect of the grass, similar to Verizon and Samsung deprioritizing their messaging apps in favor of Google Messages, thereby enabling a constant and extra predictable RCS expertise throughout the ecosystem. RCS all of a sudden appears a lot better off, now that much more folks have joined the social gathering.
Have you ever observed extra of your family and friends utilizing RCS on iPhone? What made them lastly swap to RCS? How is your new messaging expertise with them? Tell us within the feedback beneath!
