Last year, Apple stunned the entire tech world by announcing it would support rich communication services (RCS) within iMessage by 2024. We haven’t heard anything from the company since that announcement, but Google has provided a small but useful update.
Google runs the Messages app on Android phones. On their website, they mention that RCS support will come to iPhones “in the fall of 2024”. This gives us a more specific timeframe than Apple’s original “next year” promise.
Fall is usually when Apple releases the new iPhones, around September. So it’s possible we could see RCS messaging working between iPhones and Android phones around then or with the launch of the new iPhone 16 models.
Testing may start earlier too, when Apple releases the first beta versions of their new iOS 18 software in June. This would let developers and users try out the new RCS features before the official release.
If you were hoping your iPhone friends would have better messaging earlier in 2024, this news means we’ll have to wait until fall at the earliest. But the longer videos and pictures you send back and forth will look much better by the end of 2024!
