Following pressure from China and the EU, Apple announced at WWDC 2024 that iOS 18 would include basic support for RCS. This marked a significant step forward, addressing many challenges Android users faced when messaging friends on iOS. However, even after its rollout, one issue persisted: message reactions on the Apple side of RCS didn’t function as intended.
Here’s how it worked until now: when someone reacted to your message on Android, the reaction appeared as a separate emoji message. For example, if you reacted to “I just got a promotion” with a ❤️ on Android, the ❤️ would be sent as a standalone message rather than being attached to the original text.
However, this issue seems to have been quietly resolved with the introduction of RCS Universal Profile 2.7, which brings features like emoji reactions and message editing. According to tests conducted by The Verge, reactions from Android devices now appear directly attached to the message, just like on iMessage, as shown in the accompanying screenshot.
While this update doesn’t resolve the green bubble vs. blue bubble divide between Apple and Android, it does create a more seamless messaging experience across the platforms—fulfilling the primary goal of adopting RCS. Additionally, the message editing feature mentioned earlier is expected to roll out to iPhones and other Apple devices soon, further improving cross-platform communication without sacrificing key features.
To try RCS messaging, you’ll need to enable RCS on your iPhone. If it isn’t working, you may need to adjust a few settings. For troubleshooting, refer to our RCS on iOS 18 Not Working Fixes guide to get it up and running.
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