# Michael Tsai - Blog - RCS in iOS 18 - Host: [mjtsai.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/mjtsai.com/) - Saved: December 9, 2024 (2024-12-10T01:18:30Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/55d60f1f9fc1/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/55d60f1f9fc1.json ## What Jamie wrote Some grounding: SMS is basic texting that was invented decades ago and never meant for what we do with it. MMS was a failed attempt to bring multimedia to that. RCS is a modern, open standard meant for interoperability. iMessage is Apple's proprietary messaging service that is fully encrypted. RCS is now in iOS 18 and for some of the interactions I have with non-Apple devices it is amazing. It brings a lot of parity to group messages, handles images well, allows for emoji responses. Great stuff. However, support in Android devices is frustratingly variable. Not all RCS is the same. I've been surprised at how many Android folks I know don't even have this on. This writeup is a good overview of various RCS aspects in iOS 18 and a good reference for those that do a lot of cross-platform messaging. It drives me crazy that carriers are also a variable in this. ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Appears in - [WT305: Weekly Thing 305 / Lighthouse, Willow, Artemis](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/305/), Notable ## Same host - [Swift 6 - Michael Tsai](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6ad9e627b173/) (mjtsai.com, September 19, 2024) - [Scripting News at 30 - Michael Tsai](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/dd4fff6450a2/) (mjtsai.com, October 10, 2024) - [Digital River Not Paying Developers - Michael Tsai](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a2dd9307166b/) (mjtsai.com, October 21, 2024) - [Michael Tsai - Blog - Honey Extension Scam](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3feffbeb9e9a/) (mjtsai.com, January 2, 2025) - [Michael Tsai - DeepSeek](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/672574f0bf94/) (mjtsai.com, January 29, 2025) ## Saved the same week - [The Tube Computer](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/98d04626fb31/) (thetubecomputer.com, December 9, 2024) - [Introducing ChatGPT Pro | OpenAI](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c71ba87da25c/) (openai.com, December 9, 2024) - [The Death of Intel: When Boards Fail - by Doug O'Laughlin](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/63f97a847364/) (fabricatedknowledge.com, December 9, 2024) - [Lighthouse - Inbox Zero for RSS Feeds](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/39f5c07fd15d/) (lighthouseapp.io, December 9, 2024) - [The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms - The New York Times](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f7c431f8bd8b/) (nytimes.com, December 9, 2024) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/12/06/rcs-in-ios-18/