Unfortunately even the operators who support RCS in Android are too slow in supporting it in iOS. Apple says to everyone that iOS support RCS but compelling operators not to support.
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iPhone Users Updating to iOS 18.1 Twice as Fast as iOS 17.1 Following Apple Intelligence Launch
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This tells me that many of the posts where android folks are saying “My iPhone friends aren’t updating to 18. I can tell because they’re not using RCS.” No, they intentionally turned it off.
Who knows why? Europe’s happy with WhatsApp and has been happy for years. I mean, to them, it’s one large American Tech company or the other large American Tech company. If a solution was EU driven maybe there’d be a difference, but there is none.
When Apple says they support RCS on iOS, they’re really saying that to China because that’s the only region where 100% of the carriers have been working on RCS support for all phones for years. At the carrier, where RCS was always meant to be deployed (not as just another internet messaging app like Google Messages). Apple isn’t compelling operators not to support. Operators have “not been supporting” RCS for years. There’s no money in it for them, so they’re dragging their feet.
I don't care about the AI features, I simply didn't upgrade to 18 until now to give them time to work out the wrinkles.
Yes. Settings- Apple Intelligence and turn on. Off by default.
While it's true that Google is it's loudest and strongest proponent, RCS is actually an open standard "owned" by the GSMA, which is a European-headquartered and dominated organisation. It's entirely possible to completely implement interoperable RCS end-to-end without ever touching any Google software or services.
Completely different to WhatsApp where the entire stack is entirely proprietary and closed. It's very naive to put all your eggs in one basket for a service that has become so important to society as messaging. Even if the company running it seems benign. But I do wonder if Europe would be so complacent if Meta were, say, a Chinese company?
You won’t be saying that after a few days because the new bugs are starting to crawl out. 🐞
Sadly, for many people 100% convenience will excuse 75% accuracy.
It is “possible”, yes. But, if a user is sending a message to anyone in the US, they’re using Google software and services. And, if other carriers sign up with Google (rather than upgrade their own infrastructure), then that’s just going to grow.
Ah, good question. And, here’s another sort of important thing. The EU had a say in Meta buying WhatsApp (just like they would have had a say in a Chinese company buying it). Would they have said yes to a Chinese company? I would think no, but I was surprised they allowed FaceBook.
Before I switched back to iPhone, my Pixel phone had RCS and so did a handful of my friends who had Samsung devices. Weirdly, my carrier does not support RCS on iPhone, but supports it on Android.
As someone who has used “AI,” I must say it’s incredibly underwhelming. I wouldn’t consider upgrading solely for this feature. I would upgrade for security patches and the hope that Apple will eventually address the bugs.
Of course iPhone 16 owners are going to jump on it, it's the only thing that made the phone "worth" buying.
Like most any update. You get bug fixes and various new features big and small and end up using some of those features and not others (at least for now).
I updated from my 13 pro to a 16 pro more for other features but the AI was a good extra to add in.
The noticeable improvement in battery life alone would have got people to upgrade.