After years of lobby from Google and Android fan alike , Apple has in conclusion agreed to adopt support for RCS electronic messaging on iPhone as part of the big iOS 18 update , due for release in the coming weeks .
While this character of messaging has been feature in Android smartphones since 2018,Apple has been loth to comprehend the technology – until now .
But what is RCS Messaging and how is it different from SMS ? Here ’s everything you need to know about RCS messaging , from the differences to unconstipated SMS texts to when it ’ll finally come along on iOS devices .
What is RCS messaging?
RCS ( which stands for Rich Communication Services ) was built as the replacement to SMS and was designed to accommodate more types of multimedia message than SMS can .
How is RCS different from SMS?
Although SMS is universally used and is available on all nomadic phones , it has limitations . SMS is confine to up to 160 reference per message and is purely a textbook - ground way of messaging and does n’t support paradigm or any other multimedia .
If you did want to send images or multimedia files , you ’d need to use MMS . Similarly to SMS , MMS messages are sent over the cellular mesh which can get high-pitched and undesirable carrier fees , and it ’ll massively contract your content too .
In comparing , RCS chats can include high - res images , videos , voice notes and map all in one spot , without any extra explosive charge require .
RCS is already available on much every Android headphone , with feature of speech not dissimilar to Apple ’s iMessage . Google has also added support for end - to - final stage encoding for chats using RCS in its own Google Messages app , so conversations are protected . This is especially notable , as SMS system do n’t offer this tier of security .
RCS also mold over Wi - Fi or mobile data and requires all participants in the conversation to have admittance to RCS , whereas SMS messages are sent over the cellular meshwork .
When will the iPhone support RCS messaging?
At the time of writing , iOS does not presently suffer RCS .
Instead , Apple has its own communication standard between Apple machine , iMessage . Although iMessage has all the features of RCS , include the ability to send multimedia system and read gross , it can only be used with other Apple bone devices .
However , this will all change with the upcomingiOS 18 update . Apple says iMessage will digest RCS to bring “ richer medium and delivery and read receipts for those who do n’t use iMessage ” .
Given that we ’re mere hours away from the launch of theiPhone 16 , it ’s likely that we ’ll see iOS 18 , and thus RCS , revolve out to iPhones around the world in the issue forth week .
