Apple is bringing RCS messages to iPhone in iOS 18: It's a replacement for SMS.

Google and other companies trolled Apple for years - and it gave up.

As part of the iOS 18 announcement at WWDC 2024, Apple announced that its Messages app will receive long-awaited RCS support. This standard will replace SMS as the default communication protocol between Android and iOS devices.

The move comes after years of ridicule, cajoling and finally some scrutiny from EU regulators.

Apple's website page for the upcoming release has at least one example of what RCS will look like on the iPhone. There will be a mention of "RCS" in the text field indicating the connection, but everything else is standard.

RCS, or Rich Communication Services, was developed as a replacement for SMS. This standard implements text input indicators and read notifications - just like in regular instant messengers. In addition, RCS allows you to send longer messages and supports high-quality images and videos.

Over the past five years in the US, RCS has become the standard messaging protocol on Android phones, but Apple has stubbornly refused to support it. Now, starting with iOS 18, some iMessage-like features will finally be available in cross-platform chats.

In Russia, RCS does not work everywhere - it depends on the support of the standard by the cellular operator. MTS definitely has such a function in its arsenal, but it only works on certain Samsung devices.