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I just got RCS on beta 3 with first net. Most of my bot friends have converted to RCS. but I have two contacts that still say SMS. They confirm they have RCS turned on. I have deleted the thread, closed Messages, and even toggled RCS off and back on again.

Thoughts?
Not sure but do you know which carriers they are on?

And bot friends?
 
I do not. Bot friends = android users 😁
The first think I would do is ask your Android friends if their carriers support RCS. Then, if that checks out and they have RCS enabled, I would chalk this up to iOS 18 still being in beta. Apple has still likely not worked out all the bugs yet.
 
Isn't everyone using WhatsApp?
No, and I do not like it because of constant notifications of everyone's chats or whatever they are, constantly interrupting me. Admittedly, I don't fully know how to use it, but once I got into a group using it, there didn't seem to be a way to leave the chat without deleting the app, so didn't understand the point of having it.
 
No, and I do not like it because of constant notifications of everyone's chats or whatever they are, constantly interrupting me. Admittedly, I don't fully know how to use it, but once I got into a group using it, there didn't seem to be a way to leave the chat without deleting the app, so didn't understand the point of having it.
You most definitely can leave groups on WhatsApp (I did, just a few weeks ago, almost all of them).

iMessage is the only chat ecosystem where you can‘t leave any groups if there are only 3 or less participants (questionable limitation). That and lo and behold you being part of a MMS group, then you better buckle up cause you‘re there for the rest of eternity or the eventual heat death of the universe.
 
I have no interest in changing the messaging system that came with my iPhone nor do I understand why I should consider it when it does all I want it to do.
 
I have no interest in changing the messaging system that came with my iPhone nor do I understand why I should consider it when it does all I want it to do.
I assume you‘re using the Apple Messages app. So RCS is probably a big upgrade for you if you have no-iOS contacts.
 
You most definitely can leave groups on WhatsApp (I did, just a few weeks ago, almost all of them).

iMessage is the only chat ecosystem where you can‘t leave any groups if there are only 3 or less participants (questionable limitation). That and lo and behold you being part of a MMS group, then you better buckle up cause you‘re there for the rest of eternity or the eventual heat death of the universe.
Thanks. The only groups I might text with are my kids. For anything more than that, I think that's what email is for. And what about Zoom or other meeting-type apps? Pardon me, I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, I'm just afraid of forced changes being made that I don't need or want or that would complicate my simple little retired life. I like that iMessage is more secure, also. Now, if WhatsApp can operate for simple secure text messaging, and many of my friends or family prefer it for some reason, I guess I'd consider it. Ditto for this new RCS, but the article indicates it is less secure. Again, thanks for your comment.
 
Thanks. The only groups I might text with are my kids. For anything more than that, I think that's what email is for. And what about Zoom or other meeting-type apps? Pardon me, I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, I'm just afraid of forced changes being made that I don't need or want or that would complicate my simple little retired life. I like that iMessage is more secure, also. Now, if WhatsApp can operate for simple secure text messaging, and many of my friends or family prefer it for some reason, I guess I'd consider it. Ditto for this new RCS, but the article indicates it is less secure. Again, thanks for your comment.
RCS is more secure and more modern than SMS, that‘s all that counts imho. The less SMS being sent, the better for everyone.
 
I assume you‘re using the Apple Messages app. So RCS is probably a big upgrade for you if you have no-iOS contacts.
Thanks. Most of my friends/family use Apple (which I know because messages to them are blue while non-Apple's are green. But, again... I'm pretty ignorant in this whole subject and don't understand what the actual UPgrade is, so don't mind me. 🙃
 
RCS is more secure and more modern than SMS, that‘s all that counts imho. The less SMS being sent, the better for everyone.
The conversations I've been part of here indicate that I know so little about all of this nor where to learn: SMS, iMessage, WhatsAPP, RCS, GSMA, etc. So, I should just thank you for your comments and shut up. Have a great day.
 
It goes over data so it‘s like iMessage and WhatsApp: consumes your data allowance and not per message, like basic SMS is in many countries.
With iMessage if you don’t have international texting with your service iMessage still works. I’m expecting one of the carriers to say you need to have international texting on your service before RCS can be used for overseas texts in the case you’re offline and need SMS for the backup. I hope I’m explaining it clearly.
 
With iMessage if you don’t have international texting with your service iMessage still works. I’m expecting one of the carriers to say you need to have international texting on your service before RCS can be used for overseas texts in the case you’re offline and need SMS for the backup. I hope I’m explaining it clearly.
Yeah but that‘s not how it works. Carriers don‘t monetize RCS like they do SMS, cause it‘s not even carrier infrastructure anyways for the vast majority. It‘s a free service with no costs associated to it (there may be roaming fees for data usage if you‘re abroad, depending on your contract, but they‘d also apply to iMessage).
 
I just upgraded to the latest iOS 18 public beta.

It seems my mixed group chats with Apple and Android users are all still defaulting to SMS, not RCS, but I guess that makes sense since 99% of iOS users aren’t on iOS 18 yet.

In contrast, RCS is often (but not always) the default now for me, for individual Android contacts.
 
I just upgraded to the latest iOS 18 public beta.

It seems my mixed group chats with Apple and Android users are all still defaulting to SMS, not RCS, but I guess that makes sense since 99% of iOS users aren’t on iOS 18 yet.

In contrast, RCS is often (but not always) the default now for me, for individual Android contacts.
I don‘t think there is auto-upgrade anyways, so you‘d probably need to create a new RCS group. But then again, Apple has buggy RCS groups anyways (they go against the spec by allowing iOS users to send SMS into a RCS group, which bricks these chats on e.g. Android) so it might as well upgrade you to RCS automatically on iOS …
Google is working on a banner that prompts users to upgrade to RCS groups on Google Messages though.
 
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Can you turn read receipts OFF for RCS like you can with iMessage?
No, not yet anyway. The toggle on/off switch for read receipts on iPhone only applies to iMessages. It has no effect on RCS messages, therefore the only way to not send RCS read receipts is to disable RCS messages altogether.
 
No, not yet anyway. The toggle on/off switch for read receipts on iPhone only applies to iMessages. It has no effect on RCS messages, therefore the only way to not send RCS read receipts is to disable RCS messages altogether.
That is not true. I have the global toggle off and all of my RCS conversations do not trigger any read receipts on the Android side.

Make sure to check if the toggle is off in the individual conversation details sheet (there is also a read receipts toggle).
 
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I still don't have RCS support with my Android friends, but probably because they may be using "off" brand carriers here.

Also, a friend of mine says for his Android friends, even when iMessage says RCS is supported, it isn't always supported. Sometimes video files get re-encoded to horrible quality files, and sometimes they go through at high quality.
 
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