RCS Messaging is finally available on your iPhone with the public betas of iOS 18

Apple released the second public beta for iOS 18 on July 29, more than a month after the tech giant announced the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta brings a host of new features to your iPhone, including text effects in Messages and more ways to lock screenBut one new, much-wanted feature is support for Rich Communication Services in Messages.

While Apple barely mentioned RCS Messaging during its WWDC presentation, it’s still scheduled to land on your iPhone with iOS 18 this fall. With RCS Messaging, you’ll be able to enjoy features like typing indicators and the “Delivered” status message while messaging Android users. It’ll also help ensure that high-quality video and photos are sent when texting between iPhone and Android devices.

Read more: An Expert’s Guide to the iOS 18 Betas

I recommend downloading a beta on something other than your primary device. Since this isn’t the final version of iOS 18, the update may be buggy and your battery life may be poor. It’s best to keep those issues on a secondary device. I downloaded the beta on my old iPhone XR to avoid any issues on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Note: The beta is not the final version of iOS 18, so there may be more features coming to your iPhone when iOS 18 is released. Apple has said iOS 18 will be available to the public this fall, but no firm date has been set.

If you’re an early adopter of iOS 18, here’s how to check if your carrier supports RCS and how to make sure it’s enabled on your iPhone. And if you want download the iOS 18 betashere’s how.

Read more: Apple’s RCS Texting Previews All the New Features

Does my provider support RCS messaging?

Most providers support RCS, but not all. For example, Verizon, AT&T And T-Mobile all support RCS on iPhones running iOS 18. If you have a different carrier, you may not be able to use this feature, but there’s an easy way to check.

1. Open Institutions.
2. Crane General.
3. Crane About.
4. Crane Carrier.

When you tap on Carrier, it will change to IMS Status and the message support details will be displayed on the right. For example, if your carrier supports RCS, you will see Voice, SMS and RCSIf your provider does not support RCS, you will see Voice & SMS.

How to Enable or Disable RCS on Your iPhone

If your carrier supports RCS, here’s how to check if it works on your iPhone.

1. Open Institutions.
2. Crane Applications at the bottom of the menu.
3. Crane To inform.
4. Tap the switch next to RCS messages below Texting.

Now, messaging Android devices feels more like messaging any other iPhone — but you’ll still see those green bubbles. And if you want to disable RCS, just follow the steps above again.

Why isn’t RCS working on my iPhone?

If you’ve updated your iPhone to iOS 18, your carrier supports RCS, and you’ve enabled it on your iPhone, but RCS isn’t working for you, you may need to restart your iPhone.

However, if you’ve restarted your iPhone and RCS still isn’t working, it’s likely a bug in iOS 18. Remember, iOS 18 is still in beta, so this and other features may not work properly. There will likely be more beta builds before the OS is released to the public, and Apple still has plenty of time to address these issues. There’s no word yet on when Apple will release iOS 18.

For more information about iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with it iOS 18 public beta 1 and our iOS 18 Beta Cheat Sheet. You can also check out what you need to know about the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta.

Look at this: iOS 18 Hands-On: Exploring the Big Design Changes

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