How to update green bubbles in iOS 18

Green bubbles, rejoice: Your iPhone friends can finally text you much more easily. As part of iOS 18, which was released to everyone on Monday, Apple added support for RCS, the Rich Communication Services protocol for messaging. This means chats between iPhone and Android users finally have a number of much-needed features that should have been there a long time ago.

A big reason I’ve stuck with iOS (and never even considered switching to Android) is because iMessage conversations work particularly well for my family group chats, and I don’t want to impact those chats. This new RCS support is a big step toward significantly improving texting between iPhone and Android (though there are still enough downsides to make me stick with iOS).

With RCS on iOS, you get important improvements like high-resolution media, typing indicators, and read receipts when you text with people on other phones that also support RCS. In its iOS 18 press release, Apple also highlights support for “more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.”

RCS chats still lack many of the features that Apple includes in iMessage conversations, such as the ability to schedule messages to send later or add animated text effects to your texts. But with RCS support, many of the basic features are now available.

If you’re texting someone who doesn’t use an iPhone, look at the text entry field. In gray letters, you’ll see the words “Text Message,” then a period, then “RCS” or “SMS.” If you see RCS, you’re having an RCS chat! You may see similar “RCS” or “SMS” indicators in the middle of a conversation thread.

However, there may be at least one catch: It seems that not all providers support RCS on the iPhone yet. According to 9to5GoogleAT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon support the feature in the US, I’m on Mint Mobile and instead of “RCS” my iPhone-to-Android conversation still says “SMS”. At least I have good looking Tapbacks that Are available via SMS. But by and large, SMS conversations haven’t changed, so if you’re forced to chat with your Android friends via SMS, you’ll have to deal with limitations that have been in place for years.

If you want to disable RCS for any reason, you can do so via Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.

Apple only supports the basic RCS standard, called RCS Universal Profile, which is not encrypted. That means when you text your friend who uses Google Messages, those messages are not encrypted like when you text another iPhone user using iMessage.

While this is disappointing, it is not too surprising. Apple would probably still prefer everyone to buy an iPhone. But let’s hope Apple encrypts RCS texts in a future version of iOS.