The long-awaited day is here: Apple has announced that its Messages app will support RCS in iOS 18. The move comes after years of taunting, cajoling, and finally, some regulatory scrutiny from the EU.

Right now, when people on iOS and Android message each other, the service falls back to SMS — photos and videos are sent at a lower quality, messages are shortened, and importantly, conversations are not end-to-end encrypted like they are in iMessage. Messages from Android phones show up as green bubbles in iMessage chats and chaos ensues.

Apple’s announcement was likely an effort to appease EU regulators.

  • atocci@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    This is exactly what I’m expecting. The company of “buy your mom an iPhone” isn’t going to be aiming for maximum interoperability.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yeah but the company of “wants to remain in the EU market” might

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 months ago

        The EU is fine with iMessage shenanigans, because they’re not a significant enough part of the market to matter. Nobody uses SMS either.

        It’s WhatsApp all the way here.

      • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        No, they’ll aim for minimum interoperability that the EU will let them get away with, and they’ll push that line every chance they get