Should you’ve been maintaining with all of the information out of WWDC 2024 this week, you may know that Apple is bringing the RCS (Wealthy Communication Companies) messaging normal to iPhones later this yr with iOS 18. That is a win for Google, which has lengthy backed RCS on Android. However what really is RCS? And why does supporting it matter?
The brief model: It is an improve on the usual SMS/MMS texting requirements that smartphones have been utilizing from the beginning. It brings higher help for all of the cool options we’re used to in our messaging apps, like learn receipts and pictures, and it provides some additional safety layers too.
Sure, it is lots like utilizing iMessage from Apple, or utilizing WhatsApp—although it isn’t fairly that straightforward. There isn’t any RCS app you may set up, however yow will discover apps that help the RCS normal, as we’ll clarify.
So the lengthy model: Wealthy Communication Companies is a basic normal somewhat than an app like WhatsApp, Sign, or Telegram. It requires service help to work, which is why adoption was gradual to start with, although RCS now works throughout most nations and is supported by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Cell.
SMS (Quick Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) weren’t actually constructed for the fashionable manner that we talk by our telephones, and RCS tries to repair that. It provides or improves help for sharing large-resolution photos and video, group chatting, learn receipts, video calls, and messages that truly transcend 160 characters.
When RCS is supported in your cellphone’s default texting app, you may add reactions to messages, see when another person is typing, and drop additional parts like GIFs, stickers, and your present location into conversations—all options you could be used to and settle for as normal in different apps.
There are modifications and upgrades behind the scenes as nicely. Whereas SMS/MMS requires an information connection to your mobile community, RCS works over cell networks in addition to Wi-Fi. If you do not have a cell sign for no matter motive however yow will discover a wi-fi community, your message can nonetheless undergo.
