iOS 19 to Improve Texting With Android Users in Five Ways

[MacRumors]

Apple this week said that it plans to add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to the Messages app in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS software updates, and that news actually has some additional implications.

As noted by 9to5Mac's Michael Burkhardt, Apple has indirectly confirmed that it will be adopting the RCS Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which includes not only end-to-end encryption, but also several other iMessage-like enhancements that were originally introduced in version 2.7 of the specification. iOS 18 supports RCS Universal Profile 2.4.

Here are five new capabilities to expect for RCS conversations:

• End-to-end encryption, which will prevent Apple and any other third party from being able to read messages and attachments while they are being sent between devices, as has always been the case with iMessage
• In-line replies
• Edit messages
• Unsend messages
• Full-fledged Tapback support for RCS messages, ensuring they always work

iMessage conversations with blue bubbles have supported end-to-end encryption by default since iOS 5. In addition, iMessage has supported in-line replies since iOS 14, while the options to edit and unsend iMessages were introduced with iOS 16.

Apple has not indicated which iOS version will upgrade RCS, but iOS 19 or a follow-up update like iOS 19.1 or iOS 19.2 seems like a safe bet.

Article Link: iOS 19 to Improve Texting With Android Users in Five Ways

 

[ignatius345]

Wow, this would pretty much eliminate all the pain points of texting people with Androids. Sounds good to me.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "Text Message" or "RCS".

 

[JonathanParker]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "SMS" or "RCS".

I agree, I also demand that Apple give me the option to customise the colours of the Dynamic Island privacy indicators from Orange for microphone and Green for Camera—I want Purple for Microphone and Brown for Camera. I also demand the ability to rotate all message bubbles by 12° as a customisation feature in the Messages app, and I want to change the colour of all notifications so they appear with pink text instead of white

 

[MilaM]

About time and happy to see even more usability improvements. I don't mind using OTT services like WhatsApp or Signal. But in many cases a simple RCS message is all you need.

 

[GMShadow]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "Text Message" or "RCS".

It's important to help avoid social faux pas. If you're in a group chat and someone's got a green bubble, you're going to keep restaurant recommendations more on the side of Applebees rather than Ruth's Chris or something even more upmarket.

 

[zedsdead]

RCS is the unsung hero of iOS 18 if you interact with any android people. By far more impactful than Apple Intelligence. Look forward to more improvements. This feature took WAY TOO LONG for Apple to support.

 

[AppleofyourI]

Honestly, at this point, I don't believe any of the software rumors or Apple promises until I actually see them work on my phone in my hand.

 

[racerhomie]

Honestly, at this point, I don't believe any of the software rumors or Apple promises until I actually see them work on my phone in my hand.

RCS is already on iOS 18. If your carrier supports it, you can use it now

 

[mansplains]

I like how all of the suffering comes to the iOS user, while things are normal on the android end. Fantastic customer experience.

 

[spazzcat]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "Text Message" or "RCS".

Not going to happen.

 

[spazzcat]

Honestly, at this point, I don't believe any of the software rumors or Apple promises until I actually see them work on my phone in my hand.

We are missing one feature for iOS18 and it only being blowen up as big deal becuase of the media. It still coming, most likely a day 1 feature of iOS19.

 

[AppleofyourI]

RCS is already on iOS 18. If your carrier supports it, you can use it now

Correct. But this article discusses supposed future updates, right?

 

[spazzcat]

I like how all of the suffering comes to the iOS user, while things are normal on the android end. Fantastic customer experience.

There is no suffering. I have no issues with iMessage, RCS, or text messaging, but all my messaging pain points come from Android users who can't use RCS or text messaging, but use some other messaging service.

 

[Johnny907]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "Text Message" or "RCS".

Agree. I won't be switching to Android because I'm far too entrenched in the Apple ecosystem for that to ever work, but I'm always jealous when I look at a friend's messaging app because they can assign colors and style to each contact individually. It's a small thing, but being able to assign different colors for work/business contacts to differentiate them from personal contacts would be such a welcome feature. Apple could implement this tomorrow if they wanted to, leaving the current setup as default but allowing customization inside each contact's info screen, but no, Apple gonna Apple and force everyone to be as homogenous as the companies they used to lampoon decades ago just to own those Android chuds, or whatever.

 

[DakotaGuy]

It's important to help avoid social faux pas. If you're in a group chat and someone's got a green bubble, you're going to keep restaurant recommendations more on the side of Applebees rather than Ruth's Chris or something even more upmarket.

Personally I’d rather hang with the people headed to Applebees. They’ll be more fun especially after a few cheap beers.

 

[macfacts]

It's important to help avoid social faux pas. If you're in a group chat and someone's got a green bubble, you're going to keep restaurant recommendations more on the side of Applebees rather than Ruth's Chris or something even more upmarket.

There are poor iPhone users too. I recently bought my mom an iPhone 16 so I had the experience of selling her old iPhone 13 on Craigslist, so I had to deal with poor iPhone users. I know they were iPhone users cause their email has the "sent from IPhone " signature. Very annoying to deal with them.

 

[wanha]

RCS is the unsung hero of iOS 18 if you interact with any android people. By far more impactful than Apple Intelligence. Look forward to more improvements. This feature took WAY TOO LONG for Apple to support.

Maybe in the US. Here in Europe, operator support for RCS is non-existent in many countries

 

[Drzed]

Maybe in the US. Here in Europe, operator support for RCS is non-existent in many countries

Same in Australia. Nothing has changed since iOS 18 and RCS support. All messaging between Apple and Android is still SMS with no RCS support, it’s literally 1990s tech where you can’t even send anything more than 120 plain text characters

There is a reason why WhatsApp is so popular outside of the USA. Apple has ignored the messaging between the 2 platforms for years allowing competitors to take over. The amount of Apple users outside the USA who use other messaging apps instead of iMessage is staggering.

 

[CarpalMac]

Apple could end the blue bubble / green bubble issue so easily, as with so much other low hanging fruit they ignore.

Just let people set it to whatever color they want. How hard is that? I can set my watch complications to a jillion colors, I can make my Home Screen look absolutely awful in whatever shade of color I want.

Why can't I just customize my Messages colors? It even says right there in the compose field, for every single message every single time, "iMessage" "Text Message" or "RCS".

People would claim that choice = confusing....

 

[DakotaGuy]

There are poor iPhone users too. I recently bought my mom an iPhone 16 so I had the experience of selling her old iPhone 13 on Craigslist, so I had to deal with poor iPhone users. I know they were iPhone users cause their email has the "sent from IPhone " signature. Very annoying to deal with them.

You are annoyed because you had to deal with poor people? Please tell me you’re being sarcastic.

 

[Chungry]

Same in Australia. Nothing has changed since iOS 18 and RCS support. All messaging between Apple and Android is still SMS with no RCS support, it’s literally 1990s tech where you can’t even send anything more than 120 plain text characters

There is a reason why WhatsApp is so popular outside of the USA. Apple has ignored the messaging between the 2 platforms for years allowing competitors to take over. The amount of Apple users outside the USA who use other messaging apps instead of iMessage is staggering.

Speaking from the experience of needing to message people across SEA, Africa and the EU it's usually WhatsApp. Some folks get fancy and use signal. One thing that they all have in common is NOT using iMessage. It's just not important outside the content-wide strip mall of America

 

[DakotaGuy]

RCS is already on iOS 18. If your carrier supports it, you can use it now

I have an Android phone and almost all of my contacts are on RCS now whether an iPhone or Android. I’m in the US though so I’m sure it’s not as prevalent in other parts of the world. This is a very positive development though and it will finally bring secure cross platform and feature rich messaging to the stock Apple Messages app when texting an Android phone. Bubble color? I assume it’ll still be green because RCS is a carrier service just like SMS/MMS and Apple thinks those should be green versus its own proprietary iMessage service.

 

[sos47]

no way here in west europe. i am admin of several whatsApp groups. nobody would switch to a new conversation because of „new apple features“ because everybody is in other whatsapp groups etc etc. yeah and i am a zuck hater. nobody cares.

 

[subjonas]

At first I read the title of this article as “iOS 19 to Improve Texting” and I got excited that autocorrect was going to be fixed. But this is cool too.