Subj : RCS on iPhone has expanded its reach to more countries with iOS 1
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Tue Jul 09 2024 11:15:04

RCS on iPhone has expanded its reach to more countries with iOS 18 beta 3

Date:
Tue, 09 Jul 2024 10:04:27 +0000

Description:
iOS 18 beta users in Canada and various European countries can now use RCS.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

RCS support could be the biggest update to messaging on iPhone since the 
launch of iMessage, and while RCS (which stands for Rich Communication 
Services) isnt yet available to everyone, it is now more widely available to 
iOS 18 beta users. 

Following an initial but very limited RCS launch in iOS 18 beta 2 , were now 
seeing RCS work with carriers outside the US in iOS 18 beta 3. According to 
9to5Mac , the service has expanded to customers of Videotron, Telus Mobility, 
and Bell in Canada, Telefonica customers in Spain, SFR customers in France, 
and O2 customers in Germany. Thats on top of the existing support for RCS 
with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the US. 

So, ultimately, this is still only a small number of carriers, but with the 
reach of RCS on iPhone now expanding beyond the US, theres a good chance well 
see it supported in the likes of the UK and Australia in the next iOS 18 
beta. 

Thats good news, and not just for iPhone users, as support for RCS will 
particularly benefit communication between iPhones and Android devices. It 
supports many of the same features as the likes of iMessage and WhatsApp, 
such as read receipts, GIFs, and the ability to share higher quality images 
than via SMS, but rather than being a separate app that both parties need to 
be using, its a messaging standard  so you can think of it as an upgrade to 
SMS. 

The upshot is that even though Android users cant access iMessage, they can 
still make use of advanced messaging features such as those mentioned above 
when messaging an iOS user, even when just using their default messaging app. 
RCS on an Android phone (Image credit: Google) RCS is getting even better 

And in convenient timing, the RCS standard has also just been updated. The 
latest version (spotted by 9to5Google) includes the ability for the message 
sender to Edit, Recall and Delete messages that they sent earlier for 
themselves and the message recipient, as well as enabling Replies and 
Reactions (including Custom Reactions) to sent and received messages. 

The update also includes the ability to report messages as spam, and theres 
support for Custom Reactions, which likely means things like Genmoji and 
Photomoji. 

Hopefully, this update will be widely available on Android soon, but unless 
you want to sign up for a developer beta of iOS 18 , youll still have to wait 
a while to get in on any RCS action if youre using an iPhone. 

You can expect full RCS support to roll out globally with the finished iOS 18 
release, likely in September  though sadly, even then, Android users will 
still be stuck with green chat bubbles when messaging their iPhone-using 
friends. You might also like iOS 18 : new features, predicted release date, 
and everything we know iOS 18 can do math everywhere and lets you choose your 
preferred Home hub Best iPhone : which Apple smartphone reigns supreme?



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/phones/ios/rcs-on-iphone-has-expanded-its-reach-to-m
ore-countries-with-ios-18-beta-3


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)

.