Google will work with Apple on implementing RCS on iPhone

Following the news that Apple is adding RCS support to the iPhone, Google is out with a statement this afternoon. 

Google says it is “happy to see Apple take their first step today by coming on board to embrace RCS.” The company has been a vocal critic of the iPhone’s lack of RCS degrading the messaging experience for Android users. In fact, the last “Get The Message” campaign this September equated the iPhone to a pager for not supporting the modern standard.

Meanwhile, Google will “look forward to working with them to implement this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone.” Apple has yet to provide precise implementation details but did tout features like read receipts, high-resolution images and videos, and better group conversations, while a location-sharing capability was also mentioned.

Apple said it wanted to work with GSM Association members to add strong encryption to the RCS specification. It took this morning’s statement to highlight iMessages as the “best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.” However, the support coming with next year’s iOS update will be “the standard [RCS Universal Profile] as currently published by the GSM Association.”

At the moment, Google has its own end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) implementation with the Messages app on Android that works with 1:1 and group conversations. The latter took just under two years to implement. 

Google’s full statement is below:

“Everyone deserves to communicate with each other in ways that are modern and secure, no matter what phone they have. That’s why we have worked closely with the mobile industry to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and we’re happy to see Apple take their first step today by coming on board to embrace RCS. We welcome Apple’s participation in our ongoing work with GSMA to evolve RCS and make messaging more equitable and secure, and look forward to working with them to implement this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone.”