Thanks to Apple: RCS shipping in the USA risen sharply

Since iOS 18, it has been possible for the first time not only to send and receive SMS, MMS and iMessage messages with Apple’s news app on the iPhone, but also for the first time also messages according to the Rich Communication Services Standard, or RCS for short-albeit not at all in all German carriers. Apple’s decision, for which Google had made lobby work for many years, now seems to be paid out for the enforcement of technology.

“Messaging standard for Android and iOS”

As Apple announced this week, in the United States alone are now sent one billion RCS messages every day. This was calculated in the mean of 28 days. “This means that more people can send high -quality photos and videos and add people to the group chat without being interrupted,” writes the Internet giant. In the past few years, people have concentrated to better link people, “no matter which phone they have”. That is why they tried to make RCS a “messaging standard for Android and iOS”.

Google now sees its efforts confirmed, even if the functionality has not yet been completely distributed. In this way, a general end-to-end encryption, which was available from the start, only comes later. Other useful functions, including the subsequent editing and recall of messages, only come with RCS Universal Profile 3.0, which should be released at the earliest with iOS 19 in autumn.

Missing features that Google already has

The lack of protection through end-to-end crypt means that network operators and other organizations with access to the mobile network to RCS have similar slight access to the completely unencrypted SMS. However, Google offers Android devices thanks to its own infrastructure RCS encryption already.

Furthermore, RCS messages in the news app as well as SMS and MMS are in a special color-the famous “Green Bubbles” – kept. Only Apple’s iMessage messages get the well-known blue coloring, so that users still see who has an iPhone (or an iPad, an Apple Watch or a Mac). That shouldn’t change either.