After years of lobbying from Google and Android followers alike, Apple has lastly agreed to undertake help for RCS messaging on iPhone as a part of the large iOS 18 replace, due for launch within the coming weeks.
Whereas any such messaging has been featured in Android smartphones since 2018, Apple has been reluctant to embrace the know-how – till now.
However what’s RCS Messaging and the way is it completely different from SMS? Right here’s the whole lot it’s essential to learn about RCS messaging, from the variations to common SMS texts to when it’ll lastly seem on iOS units.
What’s RCS messaging?
RCS (which stands for Wealthy Communication Companies) was constructed because the successor to SMS and was designed to accommodate extra sorts of multimedia messaging than SMS can.
How is RCS completely different from SMS?
Though SMS is universally used and is obtainable on all cell phones, it has limitations. SMS is restricted to as much as 160 characters per message and is only a text-based means of messaging and doesn’t help photographs or another multimedia.
In case you did wish to ship photographs or multimedia information, you’d want to make use of MMS. Equally to SMS, MMS messages are despatched over the mobile community which may incur excessive and undesirable service charges, and it’ll massively compress your content material too.
Compared, RCS chats can embrace high-res photographs, movies, voice notes and maps multi functional place, with none additional expenses concerned.
RCS is already obtainable on virtually each Android cellphone, with options not dissimilar to Apple’s iMessage. Google has additionally added help for end-to-end encryption for chats utilizing RCS in its personal Google Messages app, so conversations are protected. That is particularly noteworthy, as SMS techniques don’t supply this stage of safety.
RCS additionally works over Wi-Fi or cellular information and requires all contributors within the dialog to have entry to RCS, whereas SMS messages are despatched over the mobile community.
When will the iPhone help RCS messaging?
On the time of writing, iOS doesn’t presently help RCS.
As a substitute, Apple has its personal communication normal between Apple units, iMessage. Though iMessage has all of the options of RCS, together with the flexibility to ship multimedia and skim receipts, it may well solely be used with different Apple OS units.
Nonetheless, this can all change with the upcoming iOS 18 replace. Apple says iMessage will help RCS to convey “richer media and supply and skim receipts for individuals who don’t use iMessage”.
Provided that we’re mere hours away from the launch of the iPhone 16, it’s possible that we’ll see iOS 18, and thus RCS, roll out to iPhones all over the world within the coming weeks.
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