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TechRadar

6 ways iOS 18 improves messaging between iPhone and Android – and 3 ways it doesn’t

TechRadar
Summary
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69% Informative

Apple 's iOS 18 brings the universal Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol to the iPhone for the first time.

This means that chats between iPhone and Android users will finally have high-quality media sharing, tapback reactions, audio messages, and other experience-improving features.

The RCS standard coming to iPhone supports a maximum file size of 105 MB per message, meaning images and video can be sent and received in high quality.

RCS doesn’t replicate all of the functions of iMessage , but it does at least allow for for the sending of high quality media and audio messages.

Apple has added end-to-end encryption to its implementation of the RCS protocol.

This means iMessage is still the only way to send encrypted messages through Apple ’s first party service.

While RCS supports video calling, it's easy to see why Apple hasn’t included this in its basic messaging service.

VR Score

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44

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16

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formal

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English

Language complexity

49

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medium-lived

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