A new setting makes iPhone-to-Android texting easier

Apple’s iOS 18 software update supports Rich Communication Services, or RCS—the first major change to texting since SMS in 1992. It brings some familiar “blue bubble" iMessage features to “green bubble" chats with Android phones, such as emoji reactions and read receipts.

Most Americans have iPhones, and iMessage is a big reason people stick with Apple’s devices. Android-iPhone chats have historically been bad, which is why some iPhone users, especially teens, bemoan them. Low-resolution images, broken group chats and cutoff messages are some shortcomings of cross-platform text chains. RCS aims to fix them.

Google has supported RCS, available in most current Android phones, since 2019. Apple’s adoption of the tech has given my husband Will, a longtime Android user, reason to hope that green-bubble discrimination may end. Last year, I wrote about his unsuccessful attempt to join my family group iMessage chat.

To be clear: RCS on iPhone isn’t iMessage for Android. You’ll still see green bubbles in the chat, but it’s better than SMS and doesn’t require having to open a separate app. iPhone users need to upgrade to iOS 18; many Android device owners just have to flip on a switch.

My iPhone-Android household has been testing the green-bubble upgrade for a few weeks. Here are the highs and lows so far, and how to try it for yourself.

Switching on supercharged texts

To start using RCS, your carrier needs to support it—Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile do—and everyone in the chat must have RCS enabled.

iPhone: Upgrade to iOS 18. Go to Settings, then Apps and select Messages. If not on by default, tap on RCS Messaging to enable.

In an RCS chat, the typing field will say “Text Message · RCS" instead of “Text Message · SMS" or “iMessage."

Android: Open Google Messages, which comes pre-installed on most new Android phones. Tap your profile picture, then Messages settings. Select RCS chats. The text input field will say “RCS message" for compatible contacts.

The good

RCS chats are more fun than SMS texts. You can send high-quality media, react with emoji and create mega group chats.

Wi-Fi: SMS messages are sent via cell networks. RCS behaves more like third-party chat apps, such as Meta’s WhatsApp. Messages travel over cellular data or Wi-Fi, which offers more flexibility, especially when you’re traveling abroad without a data plan.

Receipts: In one-on-one chats, “delivered" or “read" appears below texts to answer the age-old question, “Did you get my text?" When Will actively types, a bubble with flashing dots appears on my screen.

Emoji reactions: A thumbs-up, heart or other emoji shows up on the message. No awkward texts that say “Laughed at Insert message here"—unless you try reacting to a picture or in-line reply.

Multimedia: Text messages often yield blurry images or videos. RCS still compresses media, but they come through clear enough to zoom in on details. You can send audio messages, though the recordings aren’t transcribed like in iMessage.

Group chats: You can have up to 100 participants in a group RCS chat. Most carriers limit SMS groups to 20. Better yet: Anyone can leave—or enter—the chat without it breaking off into a separate thread.

The bad

Will and I were surprised about some missing features:

No receipts for groups: People in group RCS chats don’t see read receipts or typing indicators. This isn’t available in group iMessage chats, either, but WhatsApp, Signal and others offer it.

Emoji reactions on images: You can add a “tapback" (thumbs-up, !!, etc.) to a video or photo, but it won’t appear as an emoji reaction. You’ll see “Loved an image" or “Reacted heart to an image."

Broken replies: iMessages between iPhone users and Google Messages between Android phones allow in-line replies, which is when a user responds to a specific message in a conversation. RCS doesn’t support those replies, but the apps still allow it, causing much communication confusion. And if you tapback on a reply, cue the awkward “Liked a message" text.

No encryption: iMessage is fully encrypted. Android-to-Android RCS messaging is also encrypted. Android-to-iPhone (and vice versa) RCS isn’t. Encryption shields messages until they arrive at your recipient’s device. Without it, they can be read by your carrier, law enforcement or a malicious attacker.

Apple said it is working with Google to build an encryption standard for RCS. A general manager at Google recently said the company is “working with the broader ecosystem" to establish more secure messaging for both platforms. A collaboration between the two giants isn’t unheard of—they partnered to address unwanted location-tracking last year.

Defaults are powerful, which is why iMessage—preloaded as the default messaging service on over a billion iPhones—has become such a dominant force among Apple users.

But iPhone users are adopting other chat platforms. Earlier this year, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said WhatsApp reached 100 million monthly active users in the U.S., with over 50% on iPhones.

To get people to stay in the iPhone’s Messages app, Apple is going to have to improve green bubbles, too. RCS is a start.

Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com