AT LAST: Apple adds support for RCS Messaging

(Image credit: Apple)

The worlds of Android and iOS just got a little chummier: At WWDC 2024, Apple announced — at last — support for the RCS messaging standard. And a few tweaks to Apple's Messages app to ensure that the experience of iPhone-to-iPhone messaging remains premium.

Android devices have supported RCS messaging for years, and Apple has stubbornly resisted bridging the two standards, which will make it simpler and more seamless to communicate across the two platforms. At the WWDC 2024 event, Apple announced a slew of new texting features certain to be exclusive to Apple's iPhones, including text that bounces and pops, formatting such as underlines and bolds, and more.

And oh, one more thing: In a slide summarizing the new features, the company snuck in three words: RCS Messaging Support.

Support for the standard wasn't mentioned in the presentation, but one assumes it will come as part of iOS 18, which will be available in beta form shortly.

Also included in Apple's updated Messages app: new Tapbacks. Apple has redesigned the existing options, and the app will now let you react with any emoji from iOS. You can also now schedule messages in the Messages app in iOS 18, and there are new text formatting options including italics and bold, as well as new Text Effects that will surface suggested emojis and can be added to any text with your keyboard. Finally, Apple is bringing Messages via Satellite to iPhone using the same technology that powers its Emergency SOS feature, and the messages are end-to-end encrypted. The new Mail app includes on-device categorization and there's a new digest view that can show you lots of different emails from one business.

But back to the headlines: RCS messaging support! Support for the feature has long been rumored and expected, especially after Google leaked the news in March. At the time, the company updated an RCS messaging webpage to mention that "Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024," adding that "Once that happens, it will mean a better messaging experience for everyone."

Apple had announced no such thing, of course, and frankly announced very little today at WWDC. Perhaps tellingly, that message is no longer available on the Android RCS webpage.

Odds are, it will be shortly.

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After 25 years covering the technology industry, Jeremy Kaplan is a familiar face in the media world. He is currently the Content Director for iMore, where he oversees product development and quality for one of the world's largest and most respected technology publishers.

Before joining the iMore, Jeremy was Editor in Chief of Digital Trends, where transformed the niche publisher into one of the fastest-growing properties in digital media, ranking on the annual Inc 5,000 for three years running. The publisher won multiple awards during his tenure, including a sought-after Digiday Content Marketing Award in 2019. The same year, Jeremy was named to the FOLIO: 100, which honors publishing professionals making an industry-wide impact.

Prior, he served five years as the science and technology editor for FoxNews.com, where he made international news through a series of articles exposing Hector Xavier Monsegur as the head of LulzSec, revealing a months-long collaboration with the FBI, and detailing the ultimate takedown by law enforcement officials of the hacker collective. Kaplan worked for over a decade at Ziff Davis Media, publisher of PCMag.com and Extreme Tech. While there, he helped found the GoodCleanTech blog, which was a 2008 finalist in the MIN Best of the Web Awards and the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards Competition and ultimately served as Executive Editor.

He's a sought-after tech pundit and futurist who’s worked with organizations like the Consumer Tech Association to identify and highlight the world’s most innovative technology. Kaplan appears regularly on television and radio, including frequent appearances on Fox Business, Reuters, Cheddar, and NPR.