Marko Zivkovic
The second developer beta of iOS 18 introduced a toggle for RCS in Messages, and now select US carriers have made RCS available to users running the beta.
The introduction of RCS support from both Apple and carriers means that users will now have the option to send rich text messages with audio, read receipts, and media files to devices running Android. Users of social media platform X discovered the limited availability of this feature earlier on Tuesday.
As iOS 18 beta 2 only contains updated carrier bundles for three major US carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — iPhone users will only be able to use RCS on these three networks for the time being. If your carrier supports RCS on iPhone, you can activate it by navigating to Settings > Apps > Messages and toggling the option for RCS.
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and smaller carriers seemingly do not support this feature yet. This is likely to change in the near future as iOS 18 moves closer to its final release version, which is expected to debut in September of 2024.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
14 Comments
So all of the moaning this past year about how Apple doesn't support RCS but NO mention that it requires carrier support too.
I am guessing it's because it requires that text messages be stored on their data servers waiting for recipients to read and that requires a lot of resources which smaller carriers cannot afford?