If there was one connective thread weaving together this week’s biggest stories in mobile, it was messaging. After Nothing announced a new service designed to bring iMessage support to its latest smartphone — aplatform that crashed and burned within 24 hours— Apple made even bigger waves byconfirming its plans to add RCS supportto the iPhone in 2024. While plenty of questions remain about how Apple’s support will shake up the smartphone landscape, the explanation as towhyit’s tackling RCS, at least, remains pretty clear.
If we’re focusing on North America — along with a few other select regions — it’s difficult to overstate the importance of iMessage.Younger users, in particular, are flocking to the iPhonethanks, in part, to Apple’s dominance in messaging. While the vast majority of Europe adopted platforms like WhatsApp, places like the US have become entrenched in a messaging war, where the only thing that matters to a specific — and worryingly large — group of users remains what color your bubble is.
While we know Apple plans to reuse its green bubbles for RCS, the amount of features added might make it so iPhone users care a whole lot less. RCS in Messages will add typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality media, location sharing, and — of course — improved group chats. Color aside, the majority of features used in messaging today will finally be accessible from both iOS and Android, no matter which side you’re on.
Whether this makes a big splash outside of the tech scene, though, remains to be seen. There are plenty of iPhone-exclusive features that will stay limited to iMessage, including extensions like GamePigeon that bring multiplayer experiences right into the chat thread. It’s possible that RCS still isn’t up to par with what iMessage-exclusive users have come to expect, and that could result in cross-platform conversations feeling as divided as ever.
But I’m not worried about what iPhone users think — I’m curious about whatAndroidusers think of this week’s news, especially those living in iMessage-centric areas. I’m well aware that plenty of Android Police readers have friends primarily using Samsung or Google devices, or they’ve convinced their friends to jump into Telegram or WhatsApp. But Apple’s adoption of RCS could still be a win for plenty of Pixel or Galaxy owners,especiallyif you’re using SMS to communicate with your friends across the aisle. So, I’m curious. Will RCS on the iPhone benefit your life as an Android user, or was this week’s announcement much ado about nothing?
