My Android friends complain that my text messages are clunky and don’t offer all the functionality of Android to Android messaging. Why? Because I’m on an iPhone and apparently Apple is really anti-RCS. Is there any way to enable it anyway?
Rich Communication Services (RCS) offers much of what’s already included in the feature-rich iMessage platform on the Apple iPhone. Problem is, iMessage is only on Apple devices so while it lets you have lots of fun texting with fellow iPhone owners, Android owners are left in the dust. For them, most iPhone users end up just defaulting to Simple Messaging Service (SMS), which lacks support for various media, read receipts, typing indicators, and more.
Apple has been against adopting RCS significantly because it lacks end-to-end encryption (which iMessage includes as one of its most basic features). There are other technical reasons, but there’s always been more of a divide between iOS and everything else than we users might prefer. If all your friends and family have iPhones, of course, you can completely ignore the issue. You can also ignore it if you’re fine with basic text communication, to include photos and some audio content. Are malicious users trying to steal your text messages? Unlikely.
Shortcuts: How to Enable RCS | How to Send Messages with RCS
Still, with the introduction of iOS 18, Apple has stealthily added RCS support to the entire iPhone lineup. Once you upgrade, at least. The latest iOS as of this writing is 18.0.1. Update your phone and let’s get it enabled!
ENABLE RCS TEXT MESSAGING IN IOS 18
There are some important requirements for you to be able to enable RCS on your iPhone. It must be running iOS 18 or newer and your cellular carrier must support RCS (not all do). I’m on AT&T and it does support the Rich Communication Services protocol, as you’ll see.
Start by going into Settings > General > About. You’ll see this:
Obviously, your Wi-Fi Address, EID, ICCID, etc, will all be different to mine, but the important thing is that you can find the field labeled “Carrier”. Tap on it.
Notice what’s changed: Now it’s showing “IMS Status” and mine is “Voice, SMS & RCS”. This means I’ve already enabled RCS on this phone. If it wasn’t enabled, you would see “Voice & SMS”. If your carrier doesn’t support RCS, it might show something different (if so, please leave a note in the comments, below).
To enable RCS, go back to the top of Settings, choose Apps > Messages and swipe up to move near the bottom of that particular window. You’ll find a surprising number of options:
First off, I strongly recommend that you enable “Send as Text Message” to increase the flexibility of your communication with your Android friends who don’t have RCS or haven’t enabled it.
Note: Yes, Android users need to enable RCS too, just like iPhone folk. In Android, open Messages, then go to “•••” > Messages Settings > RCS Chats and turn on “Enable chat features”.
Back on the iPhone, tap on “RCS Messaging” in this particular setting and a single toggle switch appears:
Notice the small print: “Sending and receiving messages with RCS uses wireless data. Cellular network identifiers may be shared with your carrier and its partners.”. Not put off by that? Tap to enable RCS. Done!
TEXTING SOMEONE WITH RCS
For the most part, RCS will now be an invisible addition to your phone experience. For example, if I text a friend who has an Android phone and has RCS enabled, here’s what I see:
Notice that the faint lettering in the text input box shows “Text Message • RCS”.
But what if they don’t have RCS enabled? Well, my mate Harry Potter is apparently too busy learning magic at Hogwarts to enable this feature, which is immediately obvious when I try to text him:
The first message, before I enabled RCS, was just sent as a text message, as expected. The second message was after I enabled Rich Communication Services, and it immediately failed upon send. Since Harry’s phone doesn’t have RCS enabled, it would arrive as gobbledygook and be unreadable, so the send fails as “Not Delivered”.
Since I enabled “Send as Text Message” earlier, however, I can simply tap on the red “i”…
This time I can tap “Send as SMS” and it works just fine without any delays. That’s the full scoop with RCS on the Apple iPhone, at least for iOS 18. It could be smoother, but it’s a solid start. Now you can enable it and give it a shot with your friends and family!
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing tutorials for the Apple iPhone since they were first released. Please check out my extensive iPhone help area for oodles of useful content.