The end of the Blue Bubble vs Green Bubble war? : Apple announces RCS support for iMessage
An Apple spokesperson confirms Apple’s move to support RCS for iMessage to improve interoperability across cross-platform apps, compared to SMS or MMS that it currently uses.
Google has been relentlessly campaigning against the inferior messaging protocol that Apple adopts for its messaging platform on iOS and has tried to push them to adopt RCS for years now. Every trick was used to force Apple, from memes on Twitter/X to even roadside billboards. A few weeks ago, the competitors took it up to the EU again (I lost count of how many times) to force Apple to adopt the universal messaging protocol known as RCS instead of sticking to SMS or MMS. Just a few days ago, the founder of Nothing (an Android OEM), came out announcing ‘iMessage for Android’ — a mishap of a way to sign in with your Apple ID on an unknown Mac Mini to access your iMessage chat on the Nothing Phone 2.
I am not sure which one of the three — Google, EU, or Nothing, served the master stroke that actually did the job but 9to5Mac recently reported that an Apple spokesperson confirmed Apple’s plan to support RCS on iPhone. Here’s the statement from the Apple spokesperson:
Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.
These words sound golden to my ears as well as those who those competitors who campaigned for so long for RCS’s universal support across all messaging platforms (not that I have anything to do with them).
For those who might not have understood what the whole deal is all about, let’s answer it with a series of five questions:
1. Is Apple’s iMessage less secure without RCS?
Yes and No. If you are messaging another iPhone user, your chats will be end-to-end encrypted. Nothing to worry about. However, if you are texting with an Android user, this end-to-end encryption ends, and hence, they are technically less secure.
2. What happens if you text an Android user on iMessage?
Apart from not being encrypted and appearing in bright green (unlike blue for iPhone users), the chat might appear broken while texting with an Android user. For example, if an Android user uses tapback to react to a message from an Apple user, the reaction will appear in plaintext to the iPhone user as ‘John Appleseed liked your message’ instead of a thumbs-up reaction next to the message. This was known as the ‘Tapback Spam’ which ended with iOS 16 i.e. if you (could) update your iPhone to iOS 16. Also, videos sent by users appear in super-low pixelated quality. It tends to break a group chat in the worst way possible.
In fact, in countries like the US, where iPhones enjoy the majority of the market share, teens using Android phones are said to be bullied because their texts in the group chat tend to break the chat in ways described above.
3. Why did Apple take so long to support RCS?
While we have no definite answer for that. We can speculate that Apple liked the monopoly it had on a certain user base. The Green Bubble vs Blue Bubble was certainly prevalent in countries like the US however, it was less persistent or completely non-existent in other countries, with a higher iPhone market share, simply because other messaging platform like platforms like WhatsApp or Telegram are more popular there. So, Apple could simply ignore the feat of the RCS campaign completely.
The reason could also be that Apple wanted to build a more secure standard of its own for its messaging platform instead of adopting RCS. However, there is less evidence for that.
Eventually, we could just conclude that Apple wanted to get ahead of any (more) regulatory problems they faced by the EU. This feels like a domino effect, especially after the USB-C inclusion in the recent iPhone 15 lineup. A good domino effect, though.
4. Will iMessage be interoperable now?
Yes. This will allow for cross-messaging platforms to be more interoperable and so we can hope that chats will not be broken anymore while texting with an Android user. No more low-quality videos or dubious reaction messages.
Interoperable only means that other cross-messaging platforms like Google or Samsung’s native SMS texting app will be able to message and work normally with an iPhone user’s iMessage. This had to be mentioned distinctly since the EU also had passed legislation asking messaging platforms to open up and become truly cross-platform in a way that WhatsApp and iMessage chats would just appear together.
5. Will Green Bubbles finally disappear?
They could. While Apple has mentioned supporting RCS on iMessage, the ball, concerning the UI design choices, is still very much in Apple’s court or should I say… Apple Park. Whether Apple decides to have the same blue color chat bubble for both Apple and Android users would be something to look out for when the RCS support finally arrives next year.
One thing, to be reminded of is the last line in that statement from the spokesperson at Apple:
This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.
This means that the same protocol MMS/SMS would still remain in the background for iMessage to fall back on, and will not be a replacement. RCS tends to work even with mobile data or WiFi unlike regular SMS so users should see better connectivity overall. Apple’s implementation of RCS will also give users the same ability to share their location within texts as they normally do now on iMessage. Apple plans to adopt RCS support for iMessage and release it as a software update sometime in 2024. This could appear alongside their decision to allow sideloading apps on iPhone (only in the EU) planned for early next year.
This is a great move overall. Apple in its 5-sentence statement also iterated once again how the messaging experience on iMessage is the best and even better than RCS which is sure to start another debate of its own within the tech community… so let’s hear it out in the comment below.
And with Apple finally joining the Team RCS, Google can now focus those campaigning funds on something else. Phew!
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