The world of messaging has drastically changed with the arrival of RCS on the iPhone. Now, Apple and Android phones can communicate in a richer and more complete way. We can send photos, videos, and audio messages, but there is much more, including interesting future plans. Let’s review everything we can do when using RCS between iPhone and Android.
Delivery indicators
If we arrange the functions by order of use, when sending a message now we can know if it has been delivered. A very welcome improvement that eliminates the uncertainty of SMS, where we never knew for sure if our message had reached its destination. With RCS, on Android, we will see a checkmark when the message has been sent and two check marks when it has been delivered. On the iPhone, the word “Sent” appears below the message.
Read receipts
Just like with delivery indicators, we can now know if our recipient has read the message, which is particularly useful when we are waiting for a response to something important. On Android, this is indicated with a double tick, which turns colored when the message has been read. On the iPhone, the text “Read” accompanied by the time the message was opened appears below the text.
If we prefer, for whatever reason, both platforms allow us to disable this feature in the Messages app settings.
Writing indicators
The latest of the interaction indicators. Now we can know if the other person is typing to us. Three dots on the iPhone and a similar indicator on Android let us know that our interlocutor has more to say. Important to wait a few more seconds before considering the conversation over.
Photos, videos, files, and much more
Before RCS, sending photos or videos via MMS resulted in really high costs with our carrier, and in files of very low quality. With RCS, this changes completely. Now we can send high-resolution images and videos, up to a limit of 100 MB, via mobile data or Wi-Fi completely free of charge.
Although long videos are still compressed, they do so with much better quality than that offered by MMS. On the other hand, RCS also allows us to send a wide variety of files, such as documents, ZIP files, contacts, calendar events, and more.
Reactions to messages
If we follow the thread of communication, after having verified the delivery, confirmed the reading, seen that we are going to receive a response, and sent the necessary files, we focus on the reactions to the messages.
This simple function allows us to quickly respond to a message with a symbol or an emoji. A way to simplify communication without having to send a full message that now works between Android and iPhone. Ideal for replying from our wrist with an Apple Watch or other smartwatches.
For now, encryption in RCS is only available for messages between Android devices using Google Messages. Google is already working to support this enhanced security for messages between Android and iPhone. Meanwhile, it is important to know that RCS messages between the two operating systems do not have any kind of encryption.
The arrival of RCS is a big step forward in messaging between iPhone and Android. If our carrier supports this protocol and we have updated our iPhone to iOS 18, our communication with Android will undoubtedly be much smoother. And it will be while we can say goodbye to apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, as now Messages is where the center of our communications is located.
