Why is RCS not working between my iPhone running iOS 18 and Android?

Same here. Worked fine until yesterday in our group chat and now ‘Text Message - RCS’ went to ‘iMessage’ except if the Android user sends something then it allowed RCS for about two - three texts and went right back to iMessage. We all show RCS on our phones and carriers and have done the rests, turn off/on, etc…..suggestions. Hopefully there is a fix soon.

Thedevilsbait wrote:

In the US RCS works on all Android phones made this decade, even prepaid budget android phones that are under $100 on Amazon. Any android phone running Android 5 or later is capable of RCS messaging according to the Android documentation. The small number of people who may lack access to RCS on their android are restricted by their carrier not the phone, but all major US carriers support RCS now. Some smaller cell carriers were slow to adopt it at first but at this point I cant find anything online regarding a carrier that still doesn't support it .

You are missing the fact that NO version of Android supports RCS natively. You need an RCS compatible add-on messaging app such as Google Messages or Samsung Messages.

I have KT (South Korean cell service and states it supports RCS). I’ve restarted my phone and restarted network settings and still no luck. Could say it’s expected since IOS18 just rolled out but something tells me apple may be a little salty about this. Hopefully it patches up in 18.1 I would really love to add my dad to the family group chat 🥲

I have an iPhone 12 and it was working but as of today (9/23/24) it’s stopped . I’ve rebooted my phone and I’ve turned it off and then back on. Little earlier the text rcs was flickering between rcs and sms in the section you text in.

iOS 18 update here too on an iPhone 15 pro max only 2 contacts that have android show RCS in text. The rest show “Text Message•SMS”. Very frustrating. I have tried switching to airplane mode and turning the RCS on and off and restarting the phone, I’ve tried doing it out of airplane mode. Everyone I know has the same model android (Samsung S22) and we are all on Verizon Wireless which is supposedly compatible. It’s very frustrating and annoying. This was the one update I was waiting for and it doesn’t work

Go to settings > General > About, and tap on Carrier under ESIM. This will show IMS Status. When RCS was working, it said Voice, SMS, & RCS. Right now it says Voice & SMS. I was able to go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset and Reset Network Settings. This forced my phone to connect to everything and that included RCS. It stayed connected for a day or two and then disconnected again. It's annoying because all of my other Apple devices popped notifications about a new device connected.

I don't know if the problem is a T-Mobile problem or an Apple problem. I just wish someone would fix it because having to reset my network settings every day or two is not the answer.

So my RCS messages work between my wife's android and my iphone that is on cricket. I think both phone have to be on the same carrier. They do not work between my work phone that's on Verizon and my cricket phone.

michelleb19 wrote:

Clearly there are bugs. I hope apple fixes them asap because meanwhile I’m fuming that my husband/kids aren’t replying to me, when all the while my phone is the issue. I have no way of knowing which scenario is correct (because they can’t call me, either, and I’m completely unaware.) Ask any mom of driving teenagers - it is not good when they can’t reach you if there’s an emergency.

Why are you assuming the bugs are Apple’s? There are at least 4 parties involved, and maybe more; Apple, your carrier, your phone manufacturer, and the messaging app that supports RCS (Android requires a separate messaging app for RCS, it does not support RCS natively). And if you have Wi-Fi calling, also your internet provider.

Have you tried troubleshooting? For example, do you have a problem when on Wi-Fi, or when on your cellular network? 4G/LTE or 5G cellular? What about signal strength? Are the problems related to your location or the location of the other parties?

I have. It has happened both on WiFi and on cellular. It has happened with people on my same ATT plan and people not. On 5G, 5GE, various signal strengths when I’m out and about.

When it changes to SMS, it’s with all contacts - not just one. So it has nothing to do with anyone’s location OR anyone’s phone except maybe mine, and I doubt even that because it has happened in multiple situations as I said above.

They'd just need to ask Google for permission. Google might say yes. They might say now. Google layered end-to-end encryption on top of RCS. So, they have their own proprietary extensions on top of RCS. Right now, Apple only supports using carrier RCS servers, which do not offer encryption.

RCS is a federated system, unlike iMessage. So, Apple went with the base features in the spec to ensure maximum compatibility.

The only reason it's working so well for Android is because of Google's RCS servers. In the early days of RCS, you could RCS to another person on the same carrier, but you could not RCS to another carrier. I think carriers did that as some type of "vendor lock in." I think that all changed when Google made RCS their standard after Allo, Hangouts and all their previous chat clients failed.

amp68 wrote:

They'd just need to ask Google for permission. Google might say yes. They might say now. Google layered end-to-end encryption on top of RCS. So, they have their own proprietary extensions on top of RCS. Right now, Apple only supports using carrier RCS servers, which do not offer encryption.

In other words, give Google control over pretty much all messaging. Yeah, Apple is not likely to want to do that.

im having a current issue my RCS keeps turning on and off randomly and I’m assuming that’s either apples end or the RCS service itself. I’ve constantly see it back and forth I’d send videos to my gf and she’d send me a video and it’s either high quality or distorted. Right now I’m having an issue of it not going to RCS but the setting is on it says SMS now and it’s not going back to RCS but my gf has RCS on and if even shows she sent a text in RCS I can see her type still too but I can’t get back to RCS this started being a problem today.

I think that there's a lot of different things going on here. Mine works fine when it shows that my phone is using RCS. It worked fine for me for five days and then all of my android friends switched back to SMS. When I looked, it no longer showed RCS in Settings > General > Carrier. I rebooted my phone and it came back on and has been working for about a day.

I’ve only found 1 android user that the RCS texting works with. The weird part is, if I text their sister, who has the same carrier and same phone, it still goes through as sms. Would think RCS would work for both since everything is the same besides the actual phone number.