Switching between RCS and SMS

I’m trying to talk to someone over text who has an android, but every text i send is being sent as SMS and all of theirs are being sent as RCS. It keeps flipping back and forth and it’s annoying.

iPhone 11, iOS 18

Posted on Nov 29, 2024 3:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 2, 2024 7:34 AM

This is happening to me as well since the ios 18.1.1 update last friday. Sometimes I send a msg and it goes by RCS but mostly its going by sms. My boyfriend's msg are coming to me as rcs but when i reply it sends as sms. Prior to the ios update everything was by RCS both ways with zero issues. I wish I hadn't updated the ios...Apple needs to fix this crap

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Mar 5, 2025 5:31 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I've seen other companies where, if there is an issue in the discussion groups, they comment. Apple 'Product Feedback' is useless -- may as well be a black hole. Individual support makes no sense if a solution is not disseminated to a wider group of people having the same problem: witness this thread. Even if there is no solution, post that here and say why. Then Apple wouldn't have to have as many employees servicing the people who contact them for 'support.' So, I find your answer, and Apple's custodianship or this forum, unsatisfactory. They certainly take the time to censor these forums on occasion; maybe while they're reading it, they could pass along a summary to the appropriate engineering group for a brief comment/reply.

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Mar 5, 2025 11:25 AM in response to monist

monist wrote:

Notice how, on this site hosted by Apple, no help or suggestions are given by anyone from Apple.

This is not Apple Support. This is a user-to-user forum, something that was explained in the Terms of Use we all agreed to when we registered. Apple's participation here is largely limited to making sure we all behave.


If you want help from Apple, use the Support link at the bottom left of every page of this forum.

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Mar 5, 2025 5:17 PM in response to Bikergofast

Bikergofast wrote:

That Apple chose to not make it encrypted when the option was there.

No, RCS encryption is NOT there. It is available between Android devices using Google’s proprietary encryption method. It is not yet a worldwide standard, and, with the EU being in the mix, it may never be.

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Mar 5, 2025 5:49 PM in response to monist

monist wrote:

I've seen other companies where, if there is an issue in the discussion groups, they comment. Apple 'Product Feedback' is useless -- may as well be a black hole. Individual support makes no sense if a solution is not disseminated to a wider group of people having the same problem: witness this thread. Even if there is no solution, post that here and say why. Then Apple wouldn't have to have as many employees servicing the people who contact them for 'support.' So, I find your answer, and Apple's custodianship or this forum, unsatisfactory. They certainly take the time to censor these forums on occasion; maybe while they're reading it, they could pass along a summary to the appropriate engineering group for a brief comment/reply.

My answer is FACT. If you don’t like FACTs, I am sorry.


And Apple’s Feedback has brought about widely requested changes many times; in fact, many of the enhancements in iOS 18 started as user requests. With 2 billion customers feedback from one is not going to move them; if RCS is really an issue to thousands of users, and they tell Apple, it can make a difference.


The Apple moderators don’t routinely read the forums, there aren’t enough of them to police ASC, which is reportedly the world’s largest user support forum. They will generally only review a post that has been reported by a user, and then only remove it if the post violates the terms of use of ASC.


The reason Apple (and other companies) have user forums is legal liability; Apple employees can only publish information that has been vetted by Apple Legal, so someone identifiable as an employee can’t really answer a general question. The Terms of Use have a disclaimer that posts are the opinions of individuals, and do not speak for Apple.


And if anyone reports your recent post (it won’t be me) there’s a chance it will be removed because it isn’t a technical question or a technical answer, as explained in the ToU (did you read it, BTW), and this is a user-to-user Technical Support forum.

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Mar 19, 2025 10:45 AM in response to GageBenway

I had the same issue my girlfriend had a iPhone then switched to Android my iPhone 15 was sending RCS fine until it kept sending as SMS


If you have dual SIM have BOTH ON WHILE RCS IS ACTIVATING AFTER NETWORK RESET I have a T-Mobile SIM for backup and Verizon as Primary make sure your second SIM is the one using for Cellular


Before you reset network iCloud backs up any saved Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks

Make sure your second line is used for data

THEN reset network

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Switching between RCS and SMS

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