Breaking: Apple will support RCS, putting a stop to the green bubble scandal.
According to Technovatica, Apple will finally add RCS messaging standard functionality to the iPhone in a software version early next year.
RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is a communications standard developed by the GSM Association that has been embraced by a large portion of the Android ecosystem. It is intended to uniformly upgrade messaging communication across mobile devices. Despite cooperating with the consortium, Apple has persistently refused to provide RCS compatibility to iPhones until now. Apple, on the other hand, is altering its tune.
“We will add support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as published by the GSM Association, later next year.” We believe that the RCS Universal Profile will provide a better interoperability experience than SMS or MMS. This will complement iMessage, which will remain the greatest and most secure texting experience for Apple users, according to an Apple representative.
Apple officially concedes that RCS is superior to MMS and SMS, but emphasizes that RCS will not replace iMessage and its plethora of features such as memojies, stickers, and the ability to edit and unsend messages. Instead, RCS standard support will be included in an unannounced software update, and carriers will be responsible for implementing it.
When RCS does arrive on your best iPhone, it will mark the end of “green bubble shame” for your best Android-owning friends, family, and coworkers. They’ll be able to send and receive high-resolution photographs and videos to and from your iPhone. Group messaging could become platform-independent. They’ll also be able to share their whereabouts with you via RCS-enabled texting.
There is, of course, a snag here. End-to-end encryption is still not supported by the RCS standard. Apple, which has provided encrypted texting for over a decade, is a security zealot. Apple has stated that it will not support any proprietary extensions that seek to add encryption on top of RCS and instead hopes to collaborate with the GSM Association to introduce encryption to the standard.
However, as long as third-party apps follow the universal RCS standard, they will be compatible with Apple’s upcoming RCS compatibility.
Apple did not specify which iOS update would contain RCS capability. It’s also unknown how many iPhone generations will support the communication protocol.
A breakthrough in messaging
The announcement comes after Apple’s main rivals and Android leaders, Samsung and Google, announced support for the standard. Google has been particularly scathing of Apple’s apparent inability to accept what appears to be a superior – at least in some ways – universal standard.
“No matter what phone they have, everyone deserves to communicate in ways that are modern and secure.” That is why we have worked closely with the mobile industry to expedite RCS adoption, and we are pleased to see Apple take the first step today by embracing RCS. We welcome Apple’s engagement in our ongoing work with the GSMA to expand RCS and make messaging more egalitarian and secure, and we look forward to working with them to deploy this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone,” a Google representative said in an email to Technovatica.
Nothing also avoided Apple’s RCS rejection by bringing iMessage to its Android-based phones just days ago.
Many people worried how Apple CEO Tim Cook would react to this “cheeky” gesture at that point. There’s no indication of a direct reaction. In fact, it’s more likely that Apple saw the writing on the wall when the European Union pressured the tech giant to comply with several criteria through the Digital Markets Act. The body clearly had some success with the USB-C connections, which are now standard on all iPhone 15 models.
Surely, the EU would have compelled Apple to implement RCS by 2024. It no longer needs to bother. Apple has agreed to participate.
By the way, there’s no indication on whether this RCS support will include a third message bubble color.
