Apple is finally giving in and embracing Rich Communication Services (RCS) on its iPhones. The tech giant revealed its plans to implement the communication protocol on its smartphones.
As part of its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple revealed that RCS will arrive on its smartphones as part of iOS 18 which will arrive this fall. Though Apple did not dive into details during the keynote, the iOS 18 overview grid as shown below, reveals that RCS support will be added into the next major software update to iPhones.
As Apple previously told 9to5Mac last year, RCS implementation on iPhones does not mean the company is "opening up messaging to other platforms." RCS is the messaging standard used for most Android devices. However, Apple has resisted supporting RCS despite pressure from companies such as Google and Samsung.
Apple's previous resistance to RCS support has also sparked the "Blue Bubble vs. Green Bubble" debate, where two iPhone users exchanging messages will be blue bubbles, while an iPhone texting an Android user will display a green bubble on the iPhone, signifying the message was sent using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)/Short Message Service (SMS). The different colored bubbles will remain unchanged; however, as Apple previously pledged, RCS messages will remain green, not blue.
For more on WWDC 2024, check out our Everything Announced.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
