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Why is RCS not working between my iPhone running iOS 18 and Android?

I am running iOS 18 on my iPhone 14. RCS is enabled but does not work when messaging my Android phone. I have RCS running on my Android phone and works fine between other Android phones. My iPhone is on the Verizon network while my Android is on T-Mobile. I've tried disabling/enabling RCS on my iPhone a number of times as well as rebooting. Any other suggestions?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 14, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 16, 2024 11:05 AM

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Posted on Sep 16, 2024 4:38 PM

I have the 15 pro max

Downloaded the ios update and no options for RCS in message settings

I was previous on Android and my carrier O2 supported RCS

But since this update nothing at all

It's one of the reasons that made me chose this phone over another android becuase with the promice of RCS I could message my friends and family

No idea what's gone wrong but I'm very disappointed

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Sep 16, 2024 4:38 PM in response to logan2k

I have the 15 pro max

Downloaded the ios update and no options for RCS in message settings

I was previous on Android and my carrier O2 supported RCS

But since this update nothing at all

It's one of the reasons that made me chose this phone over another android becuase with the promice of RCS I could message my friends and family

No idea what's gone wrong but I'm very disappointed

Sep 16, 2024 4:50 PM in response to Jayp72

Jayp72 wrote:

I have the 15 pro max
Downloaded the ios update and no options for RCS in message settings
I was previous on Android and my carrier O2 supported RCS
But since this update nothing at all
It's one of the reasons that made me chose this phone over another android becuase with the promice of RCS I could message my friends and family
No idea what's gone wrong but I'm very disappointed
  1. Open Settings
  2. Tap General
  3. Tap About
  4. Tap Carrier
  5. When you tap Carrier, it will change to IMS Status and show messaging support details to the right
    • If your carrier supports RCS, you’ll see Voice, SMS & RCS
    • If your carrier doesn’t support RCS, you’ll see Voice & SMS


And if your carrier doesn't support RCS, you need to contact them to inquire why or when they will.


I'm on AT&T in the US, and my phone does show RCS as enabled on my iPhone.

Sep 18, 2024 5:55 PM in response to logan2k

I will say that this was working for me fine yesterday and not at all today. I’m on t-mobile with an iPhone 14PM updated to iOS 18 and I have a friend also on t-mobile with a Samsung Fold 6, using Google Messages with RCS on. When I sent her messages yesterday, they went through RCS. I could see the typing indicator. I sent a nice video that wasn’t all garbled. I even sent a tapback and it worked. At the bottom of my messenger in the area where I type, it said “Text Message - RCS”. Today it wasn’t working and it said “Text Message - SMS”. When she tried to send something to me, it said that I was offline and it wouldn’t send until I was back online (paraphrasing). She sent it SMS and it went through immediately. I checked my phone and RCS is turned on. Seems like something on Apple’s end.

Sep 18, 2024 5:56 PM in response to logan2k

I’m running iOS 18 on an iPhone 15 Pro Max on T-Mobile.


What worked for me was going to Settings > Transfer or Reset IPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.


WiFi Calling was disabled for about 5 minutes, but then activated on its own. After that, I checked my carrier settings under Settings > General > About > Carrier > tap the Carrier button > it’ll change and show “Voice, SMS & RCS”.


I was able to send messages using RCS to my Android friends.


Hope this helps.

Oct 1, 2024 1:37 PM in response to logan2k

RCS was working fine on my iPhone 14 Pro. When I upgraded to the 16 Pro, RCS stopped working. The text field says “Text Message - RCS” but when I hit send it immediately says “Not Delivered” with a red symbol.


I’ve tried:

Rebooting my phone

Turning on and off RCS

Turning on and off iMessage and RCS

Resetting all network settings


Even after all of that, sending messages keeps failing over RCS. It’s not the recipient, as sending RCS to them worked fine on my iPhone 14 using iOS 18.

Sep 17, 2024 10:40 PM in response to logan2k

I have the 15 Pro Max. I updated to iOS 18 within an hour of it being available. My [RCS] messaging worked between my iPhone and an Android until this morning. I checked Settings > General > About > Carrier and only saw “Voice & SMS”. I attempted to resolve the issue by doing a Force Restart. Once my iPhone was back up (after the force restart), my RCS was working again.


My assumption is that my carrier (T-Mobile) must have done some network updates overnight. By doing the force restart, my iPhone was forced to speak with T-Mobile again and update settings.


If you have this issue, before calling your carrier, try a force restart to see if that resolves it. All of the major carriers should support RCS.

Sep 18, 2024 7:12 AM in response to logan2k

i have the same issue. What I have learned under the about screen in settings, under sim the IMS only allows for sms and voice. While for some a simple restart fixed the problem apparently, in my case it hasn’t fixed it. I have tried network resets, restarting the phone, called between T-Mobile and Apple which one referred me to the other. Ultimately I even had tried deleting my eSIM and downloading a new one while trouble shooting with T-Mobile and that didn’t fix the issue. Only I haven’t done was factory reset the phone and I won’t do it to then find out that doesn’t work too.


I have come down to it that this has to be a software bug and not the carriers.

Sep 17, 2024 6:40 AM in response to Allen

Allen wrote:

I have Verizon. RCS reports on in settings. So I tried everyone in my contacts list to send a text. All the iPhone users, it said "iMessage." Almost all Android users it said "SMS." BUT I did find two contacts where it said "RCS" so Verizon must not support it for all Android users.

What carriers do the people have who you're seeing SMS? And what carrier do the two contacts have where it does say RCS?


The article linked to earlier (which was wrong about some things) says that there is no carrier interoperability. But I don't trust it.

Why is RCS not working between my iPhone running iOS 18 and Android?

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