In what can only be described as a tectonic shift in the passive-aggressive skirmish known as the great text messaging divide, Apple confirmed that it will finally support RCS messaging on iPhones. This change will arrive via a software update “later in 2024” which, in Apple time, could mean anywhere from the moment you finish reading this sentence to just minutes before 2025 rings in with champagne and existential dread.
Android users, long relegated to the green bubble ghetto where photos resolutely refused to be high-definition and group chats were more chaos than communication, will now be able to enjoy features like read receipts, typing indicators, and full-res images when messaging their iPhone-toting acquaintances. The difference being that their messages will still be green, because Apple remains committed to making sure everyone knows who is in the in-group and who is basically texting from a potato.
Apple told TechCrunch that while RCS will be supported, iMessage is not packing up anytime soon. Indeed, it will continue as the preferred method of communication between Apple devices, a reminder that some walls are merely painted with slightly more interoperable wallpaper. The company insisted that RCS will offer a “better interoperability experience” than SMS or MMS, mainly because the bar, in this case, is somewhere near the molten core of the Earth.
Now, for those with a technical bent or at least a knowledge of acronyms, RCS stands for Rich Communication Services, though calling the previous system “rich” would be akin to calling a dial-up modem a high-speed train. Google, which has been nudging Apple rather persistently (and publicly) to adopt RCS, will presumably take this as a win, although given how long it took, the celebration may be one slow clap short of satisfying.
And yes, as Apple was careful to point out, this does not mean the company is suddenly embracing the kind of platform openness you’d find at a community bulletin board. The green bubble stigma stays. The walled garden remains leafy and smug. But now Android users can at least water the plants from the outside using something better than a rusty tin can tied to a string.
So in summary, Apple is finally adopting the messaging standard that everyone else has been using for years, though not without making sure everyone still knows who brought an iPhone to the conversation and who… did not.
Sometimes progress arrives not with a bang but with a slightly higher resolution image in a green chat bubble.