4 Tips You Need to Know About Sending Messages Between Android and iPhone

Q: Why do my Android videos look terrible when I send them to my wife’s iPhone?

A: For many years, sending text messages between Android and iPhone users was difficult due to Apple’s proprietary messaging platform known as iMessage.

A competing multimedia messaging technology known as RCS (Rich Communication Services) has become the standard supported by Android devices.

Improved messaging between Android and iPhone

The introduction of iMessage in 2011 was a huge leap forward for messaging beyond SMS (text-only) and MMS (multimedia-limited), allowing you to send high-quality photos, videos, voice notes, and other data without the size and compression limitations of MMS.

It was also not dependent on operators for sending messages, as is the case with SMS/MMS messages, because it allowed all messages to be sent over Wi-Fi as well.

Another advantage was the synchronization of messages across all Apple devices (phones, tablets and computers) and end-to-end encryption, which increased security.

Blue and green bubbles when sending text messages between Android and iPhone

iMessage also introduced “blue and green” message bubbles, which provided a visual indicator for Apple device users to let them know whether a message was sent via iMessage (blue) or via SMS/MMS (green).

Over time, the phenomenon transcended technological boundaries and became a social stigma and a nuisance in group conversations involving both Android and iPhone users, especially when video was involved.

Videos sent and received in this group by Android users were heavily compressed and pixelated, making them difficult to watch because they were sent using the inferior MMS standard since Apple did not support the RCS standard.

Apple finally supports RCS

While Apple announced it would support RCS in the future some time ago, the launch of iOS 18 confirms that decision, which should alleviate some of the cross-platform messaging friction that has become an issue for Android and iPhone users.

What will RCS do?

With RCS support in iOS 18, photos and videos will finally be sent in higher resolution to and from Android users, and features like typing indicators, read receipts, and expanded emoji will be available across all devices in the group.

This also means that Wi-Fi messaging will now be cross-platform, eliminating the need to use a wireless carrier to send messages between iPhone and Android users.

What RCS Support Won’t Do Between Android and iPhone

The green and blue bubble indicator will not change and messages sent via RCS will not be end-to-end encrypted, meaning they will be less secure.

If you care about cross-platform media support and secure messaging, especially for international users whose carriers don’t support RCS out of the box, messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal offer a free solution.

Only supported devices and carriers

iOS 18 is only compatible with iPhone XR and newer devices, so it won’t be an option for older models like iPhone X or iPhone 8.

While the three major carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T) support RCS, not all MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) such as Boost Mobile and Mint Mobile yet offer RCS support.

This confusing array of devices and carriers that need to support RCS means it will be a while before all group messaging becomes less annoying. But it’s a good start.