Apple adding RCS messaging to iPhones with iOS 18 was a huge deal at the time, considering the company’s historic resistance to the standard. RCS support has been limited based on what carrier you’re with, but support has been improving over time.
The latest update is part of iOS 18.4, with the software enabling RCS support for T-Mobile MVNOs. That means anyone signed up with the following carriers should be able to switch on RCS on their iPhone:
- Boost Mobile
- Google Fi
- Metro by T-Mobile
- Mint Mobile
- Tello Mobile
- Ultra Mobile
- US Mobile
According to 9to5Mac, other carriers now have RCS support, but since Apple hasn’t updated its carrier support page we’re still in the dark about them.
What are the benefits of RCS?
The key benefit of RCS is that all the messaging is done via the internet, rather than regular cell signals. The most apparent benefit for Android-to-iPhone messaging is that photos and videos won’t suffer the same compression as MMS. In other words, you can send images without the quality degrading along the way.
Other benefits include emoji reactions, read receipts, typing indicators, and all the other features you’d miss out on when you’re not texting someone else on iMessage.
The one thing RCS on iPhone doesn’t have is end-to-end encryption. This is strange considering Apple always pointed to the lack of encryption as the official reason it didn’t want to bring RCS to iPhones. Apple has pledged to work with the GSMA, which maintains the RCS standard, and Google to fix this hole, but so far that doesn’t seem to have happened.
So while RCS does offer a much better texting experience than regular SMS, your communication lacks the same security you’d get with iMessage or Google Messages.
How to switch on RCS on iPhone
If you want to take advantage of RCS’s features when texting Android users, you’ll need to make sure the feature is actually switched on. We have an in-depth guide on how to switch on RCS in iOS 18, but here’s the quick version.
Head into the Settings app, then select Apps and Messages. You’ll see an option for RCS Messaging with a toggle next to it. Switch the toggle on, and you should then be able to send RCS messages to contacts that also have RCS enabled.
If it doesn’t work right away, you may need to restart your phone.
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