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

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.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

Again, I have no problems with SMS. I'm not interested in adding any third-party messaging services. Way too much hassle.

This is such an American attitude for some reason. All over the world, people use something else. And it varies by region. In Europe and South America, most people use WhatsApp. In Asia, many people use WeChat. The world gave up on SMS when better alternatives came along.

But here in the US, we're all still hung up on using the default messaging client that comes with our phones, even though it's a bad experience compared to alternatives.

Now, iMessage provides a great experience. But SMS, when used with non iOS users, does not. And I hate this attitude both sides have where iPhone users tell Android users to get an iPhone, so group chats don't go green. And Android users always say the Apple users are the problem, because Apple didn't support RCS until last month.

Well, guess what? This problem got solved by third parties over a decade ago by providing IP based rich messaging clients with a mobile and desktop client. But for some reason, we Americans just REFUSE to switch to anything else.

I've been trying to get my work group chat switches anything else, and what finally did it was when Apple rolled out RCS support and our group chat kept going from RCS to SMS, and when someone sent a new video or image, it would create a new group chat. At one point, everyone had 3 group chats going that would occasionally merge back into one group chat, and then break apart into multiple group chats.

But the YEARS of pain we put up with because no one could bother to just install an app and create an account. Now we're all using Telegram and wondering why we didn't do this years ago.

My problem is similar since upgrading to iOS18. maybe it is because this one contact doesn't have RCS turned on on his phone, but I can send RCS to other people, but this one person it fails. when it fails I have to tap the exclamation and hit send as text message and then it will send. why doesn't it automatically fall back to that without my having to do it manually? when I try to message him on my Mac, it just fails. there is no option to send it as a text message.

What a pain!