Apple’s iMessage system is a highly-popular messaging system built into Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iMac, and is accessible to about 1.3 billion Apple device users worldwide.
If your iPhone is set up to facilitate it, messages to other iMessage users will appear within blue bubbles, showing you that you are communicating with an iMessage contact. You don’t need a mobile data plan to send a free iMessage, just an internet connection via Wi-Fi, similar to how Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp messages are distributed. Plain old text messages sent to an iPhone appear in a grey text bubble.
Messages sent to and received from Android users, on the other hand, appear in green text bubbles on iPhones and are sent via the plain old SMS/MMS (text and picture message) network run by the mobile network operators, rather than over the internet via iMessage.
This can be cause some miscommunication. For instance, I recently moved from an iPhone 12 to a new Android handset (I go between the two ecosystems to stay current with the technology), which caused some messaging hiccups for me.
I found I wasn’t receiving text messages from certain people - iPhone users - because iMessage was still enabled on the old iPhone, so messages were going into the ether trying to find the account on that phone, rather than via text message to my new Android.
There was an easy fix - disabling iMessage on my Apple account - but many people have reported problems with Apple-to-Android messaging, with messages not turning up or being delayed.
SMS/MMS is also a barebones technology, superseded in quality and functionality by iMessage and many other messaging apps, so Android users trying to communicate with Apple users get a decidedly lo-fi experience. Messages aren’t encrypted, images are sent in low-resolution format, and there’s no typing indicator to show if a contact is responding to your message.
This is all set to change this year.
Apple has bowed to pressure from Google, Samsung and others in the Android ecosystem, and agreed to adopt Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging, a protocol developed by the mobile phone industry and already in use by Android handset makers such as Google, Oppo and Samsung.
Apple will not make iMessage available on Android devices - it sees the service as an exclusive feature, the convenience of which is key to keeping its loyal customers in the Apple world. But it also sees how regulators are scrutinising its market domination, particularly in the European Union which last year passed a sweeping new piece of legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
A key plank of that law requires large tech companies to make their services interoperable with other platforms. Apple’s move to embrace RCS seems very much aimed at satisfying the new EU regulation. While it may not be opening up iMessage, it can argue that by supporting RCS, it is allowing better interoperability with Android devices.
Software startup Beeper last year tried to offer a bridging service allowing iMessage to be used on Android devices, but it was quickly blocked by Apple and has been discontinued. Bleeper is continuing with its aim of building one secure interface for numerous messaging apps but will face an uphill battle gaining the support of the messaging app companies.
The decline of texting
Seamless messaging between Apple and Android devices could arrive within a few months as a result of a software update to Apple devices that would introduce the RCS protocol. But if you are an Android user, you can use RCS now to send rich messages to other Android users.
New Zealand’s mobile network operators support RCS, which you can easily access via the Google Messages app on Android phones. Google will identify if the parties to the conversation have RCS enabled and send the message as an instant message via the internet, rather than as a text or picture message.
The big advantage of that is that you can send and receive messages even if you don’t have cellular and mobile data access - as long as you can access a Wi-Fi network, the messages can be sent and received. They are also encrypted, and you get read receipts and typing indicators. Apple’s support of RCS may even allow location updates to be embedded in text messages. Messages will only be sent via text or picture message if the other user can’t be located via RCS.
RCS has offered Android users a messaging experience mirroring some of the features of popular messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Signal. Eventually, most instant messages will be sent via RCS, or through standalone messaging apps, rather than as text and picture messages. In the UK, about 36 billion text and picture messages were sent in 2022, down from a peak of 150 billion in 2012.
Google’s backbone
What’s the downside of RCS? It doesn’t cost anything to use, but it arguably puts more control in the hands of Google.
“When you use RCS chats by Google, messages are sent and received through Google’s RCS backend over the internet,” Google explains.
“Messages can either be delivered to or received from users on other RCS service providers. If RCS chats are provided by Google, but your recipient’s RCS service is with another provider, your messages are routed through Google’s RCS backend and then routed to your recipient’s RCS backend.”
It means even more of our messages are likely to flow over Google’s infrastructure, as well as Apple’s, once it has enabled RCS. While the messages are encrypted, it highlights yet again how reliant we are for communications on a small handful of tech multinationals.
Still, RCS is a worthwhile upgrade, and its debut on the iPhone will lead to a better instant messaging experience for everyone concerned, whether you are conversing in a blue or a green bubble or moving between the two throughout the day.
