Happy Thanksgiving: iPhone users are suddenly embracing RCS

RCS is the big revolution that promises to bring down the barriers between green and blue bubbles, but it still has some ways to go before achieving that purpose. Even though Apple took the step to include RCS support on iPhones with the iOS 18 update, there are still a few significant hurdles for RCS adoption on iPhones. However, users are noticing an uptick in iPhone users jumping onto the RCS bandwagon, so there’s definitely some improvement on the way.

Even though iPhones now support RCS, Apple doesn’t highlight this to users like it naturally does with its own services. In fact, you need to align a few things before you can start using RCS on an iPhone. For one, your carrier needs to support RCS, which, thankfully, the three major carriers in the US and many of the smaller ones do. Next, users need to update to iOS 18, the version that flips the switch for RCS support.

After these steps, iPhone users can use RCS, but their Android friends and family also need to have RCS enabled for the conversation to turn into an RCS chat. Apple has enabled RCS chat by default on iPhones, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check if it is enabled in Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.

As you can see, a surprising number of stars must align before an iPhone user can send an RCS message to an Android user, and the Android user can actually receive it. Compounding this problem is the fact that many iPhone users are surprisingly lethargic in accepting and installing iOS updates, mistrusting all such updates in general and holding them off as long as they can. Many also simply do not have the required available storage to download and install large OS updates.

Reddit user GreenMonkey333 noticed that many of their non-RCS iPhone contacts recently jumped to RCS, speculating that Apple probably forced an update. Many other Redditors chimed in agreement, with some speculating that the recent iOS 18.1.1 security update, which Apple highlights as a recommended update for all users, probably forced a lot of knowing and unknowing holdouts to update to the latest iOS version.

This seemingly has brought on a wave of new iPhone RCS users, much to the relief of their Android friends and family, who can now finally enjoy richer conversations with them compared to plain and boring SMS. It’s also possible that the Thanksgiving break gave people the room to update their phones.

Further, this aligns with recent decisions on the Android side of the grass, such as Verizon and Samsung deprioritizing their messaging apps in favor of Google Messages, thereby enabling a consistent and more predictable RCS experience across the ecosystem. RCS suddenly looks much better off, now that a lot more people have joined the party.

Have you noticed more of your friends and family using RCS on iPhone? What made them finally switch to RCS? How is your new messaging experience with them? Let us know in the comments below!