Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Rich communication services (RCS) is already a big deal on Android phones with more than a billion users. Those numbers might be going up by the fall, as Google claims Apple will be joining the RCS party.
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A page for Google Messages lists the benefits of RCS, and it also just happened to have a slide saying the feature will come to the iPhone, as first spotted by 9to5Google Thursday.
“Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024,” the now-deleted slide said.
Google and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on this deleted slide.
Apple already began work on implementing RCS compatibility with its upcoming iPhone last year, but this is the first mention of when this momentous occasion would happen. The timing does seem appropriate as Apple routinely releases its new iPhone in the fall. This could be one of the many announcements of new features for iOS 18 happening in June at Apple’s WWDC.
As for what this means for Android and iPhone users, it could be the end of the green and blue bubble drama. Now this doesn’t mean that the different color bubbles will go away or that Android phones will now have access to iMessage. Android users will still have the green bubble when texting someone with an iPhone. However, things like emoji reactions, message receipts, and high-resolution pictures and videos could be available between the two devices.
Texts were one of the points the Department of Justice focused on when it decided to file a lawsuit against Apple for creating a monopoly on the iPhone. In the suit, there was an interaction CEO Tim Cook had with an individual who said how it was tough for him to send her photos as she was on an Android phone. Cook then told the person, “Buy your mom an iPhone.”