By: Nick Gambino
I never in my wildest dreams thought it was possible, but Apple has just announced they are finally making iPhone and non-iPhone messaging a lot more compatible by adopting the RCS (Rich Communication Services) standard by 2024. This has caused a lot of people to believe they may be getting rid of green text bubbles for non-iPhone users.
This is more than just about an aesthetic change. If you’ve ever dealt with the dreaded green text bubble you know there are some major incompatibility issues when texting with someone who doesn’t use an iPhone. The green was just a sign that you were going to have some trouble.
It might mean videos won’t deliver or if they do, they’re super small and low-res. Or it might mean group chat messaging is going to be a travesty and an affront to people just trying to engage in normal banter. And while we joke that it’s Android users causing all the trouble, it really has been Apple’s refusal to make things easy across devices.
“Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association,” a spokesperson for Apple said in the announcement statement to 9to5Mac. “We believe the RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.”
This change will allow for better group chats, better media sharing, ability for read receipts and the three dots showing the other person is typing.
As for the question of whether or not these RCS messages will be green or blue, Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that they will in fact be…green. This is because they are adopting RCS but not replacing iMessage with the texting standard. It will simply replace SMS and MMS and operate alongside iMessage much the way those services do currently.
This, of course, will allow Apple to continue differentiating who is texting from an iPhone and who is texting from one of those other lesser phones (JK).
