Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

kae@lemmy.ca to Technology@lemmy.ml – 622 points –
Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year - 9to5Mac
9to5mac.com

In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.

Apple’s decision comes amid pressure from regulators and competitors like Google and Samsung. It also comes as RCS has continued to develop and become a more mature platform than it once was.

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I thought that it was the carriers the ones hosting the RCS server. Is this not true?

some carriers do but Google runs their own as well because carriers were slow to adopt.

Some do, but what Google rolled out in Android Messages is their own implementation unrelated to the carriers. Ostensibly so it works regardless of carrier, but what they rolled out is a semi-proprietary implementation that only works on their app. Ergo if you use a third party texting app, no RCS. So it’s a sort of “Android iMsssage” thing anyway. Apple plans to implement Google’s version, again sidestepping the carriers.