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

From everything I've read, RCS on iPhone does not have anything to do with or connect to Google Servers at all.

This is from a search:

Apple is working with the GSMA to implement RCS in a way that aligns with the Universal Profile standard. Apple has indicated that they will support RCS but will not adopt Google’s proprietary extensions, including their version of end-to-end encryption.

Apple’s RCS support is likely to involve those of carriers, rather than Google’s Jibe servers. This means that Apple’s RCS implementation will be distinct from Google’s and will not rely on Google’s infrastructure for RCS messaging.

Hi the server itself is hosted by google.

https://ie.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?itc=dlp_domain_whois&domainName=telephony.goog

I believe this is the carrier responsibility but the way apple is doing this double tcp connection i believe it is apple responsibility. Android use the same servers but use dns resolution so this does not happen.

Not sure just want to bring some clarity and maybe a solution for more people that are having similar situations.

Just checking in to say that since I disconnected my phone from wifi at home, I haven’t had RCS drop once. It’s been almost two weeks now. So somehow my router was causing the issue. Unfortunately I don’t know much of anything, so I have no idea how to fix it. I talked to my ISP and they aren’t blocking any ports. So I guess I’m stuck on no wifi which kind of but there really isn’t anything I can do about it. It may just be a quirk of my router.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have not found this to be true. I have an iPhone and my friend has android in another state and sometimes my messages go by SMS and sometimes they go by RMS. It seems to just go back-and-forth and sometimes I receive RMS, but it automatically sends back in SMS. I don’t know why that is but it drives me crazy.

I reconnected my phone to wifi and it hasn’t dropped RCS in over a month. The only difference is that I installed ProtonVPN on my phone and run it 24/7. I don’t know if it makes any sense but I haven’t been on SMS in over a month. The thing I don’t like about Proton is that it is using more battery 24/7.

I will say if this is a software error/bug, my lawd it’s been 17 months. So the problem is on the carrier side, with eSIM. Trust me it’s a pain in the rear, dealing with non English speaking individuals reading through a flow chart.

GuruOfTheTerabytes wrote:

I will say if this is a software error/bug, my lawd it’s been 17 months. So the problem is on the carrier side, with eSIM.

Where are you getting seventeen months? iPhones only started supporting RCS in September 2024.

This is a re-post of the solution (or, more accurately, the work-around) that worked for me:

RCS messages sent from or shared with Android devices are not processed by Apple, and are not sent along via the Internet, your modem, and your router. (The senders of those messages often get an error message saying that you're "not on the network" or "not on line", as if your phone was not turned on.)

If my iPhone is on my desk, and is using Wi-Fi instead of the phone company's cellular signal, it won't receive RCS messages sent by the latter system. When I step outside, out of the router's range, or simply turn off the phone's Wi-Fi, I will get a cascade of all the unreceived messages that have been piling up.

This is probably just one of the ways RCS fails to work seamlessly with iPhones, but it might be the one that's giving you grief, in which case turning off Wi-Fi is the "fix". (Having to turn it on and off, depending on your needs, is what makes this a clunky workaround instead of a true solution.)

Well, lucky you.

Turning off Wi-FI works for me, as does stepping away from the router. Of the thousand or so others for whom it's not working either, this may help others as well. If you can tell us what setting is "wrong", then by all means share your genius, or otherwise show that YOU know what you're talking about.

I'm having the exact same issue as many people in this thread. For context, I'm running iOS 18.3.2 on a 15 pro and my messaging with android has worked fine since they introduced rcs messaging in iOS 18 last year. All of a sudden, last week I couldn't send any messages with people running android phones through RCS and had to wait until the message sent to resend as SMS. I've talked to Apple and Verizon and neither of them have any idea what's going on, and I've tried resetting my network settings as above and i'm still having the same issues.

It's starting to get really annoying since apparently my coworkers are texting me and im not receiving any of their messages! I have good wifi and full bars and its just starting to drive me a little up the wall.

varjak paw wrote:

says that they support RCS only on select Samsung phones.

And no cross-carrier compatibility.

I’m having the same problem 🙃

I've just got off the phone from O2 UK

They have not got RCS messages enabled at the moment but it's coming soon

I agree @fuzzylobes there’s something else going on.

Note also that even if your carrier supports RCS in iPhones, it may take a day or two for the update to your provisioning to be pushed out to your phone.