Apple’s iMessage remains without RCS support.
Apple has been repeatedly criticized for not implementing RCS in iMessage, and Samsung is the latest company to call it out.
Apple’s iMessage feature, although popular, has faced criticism from brands and Android users for not adopting the RCS messaging standard. This standard unnecessarily creates a divide between Android and iOS users when it comes to text communication.
Samsung has joined Google in speaking out against Apple on this issue. It has released a humorous video titled ‘Green bubbles and blue bubbles want to be together,’ which depicts a conversation between two entities discussing why Apple wants to keep them separated and what Android users have done to deserve this treatment.
RCS, a messaging standard developed by Google, aims to be a universal standard for messaging, replacing SMS without relying on carriers. However, Apple has remained silent on its implementation.
However, it’s worth noting that Apple’s iMessage is exclusive to Apple devices, and incorporating RCS would mean losing its current exclusivity. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Apple will ever implement RCS for iMessage.
It will be interesting to see if the European Union intervenes, as it did when it pushed Apple to adopt USB-C with the iPhone 15 series. There are reports suggesting that the EU is evaluating whether iMessage qualifies as a significant enough service to warrant similar treatment.
