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

Dmac190 wrote:

Has anyone tried iOS 18.1? It says it has bug fixes and being put out so fast seems to indicate an urgent fix.

Millions upon millions have now updated to iOS 181., which was actually in beta testing since before the official release of iPhone 16 models. It primarily introduces Apple Intelligence to phones which are eligible for it. And yes, there are bug fixes as almost ALL iOS updates contain. To suggest it was rolled out fast is, however, not correct.

Regardless, if you have an issue with RCS, that wouldn't likely be included in an update. RCS is still a carrier provided feature.

This just keeps getting worse for me. For a while, the RCS would work for a while and then it would go back to SMS. Eventually it would come back to RCS again. Now I have to reboot my phone and it only stays RCS for an hour or two before reverting. I wish that there was at least a reliable way to get it to come back without having to restart my phone. I also wish that they would have waited to implement it until it was stable.

I don't know where the fault lies. I can accept Apple might not be responsible and I actually really don't care who is. I just want it to work.

I am on T-Mobile

It doesn't matter what the recipient is on. My actual device will use RCS for a while and then it will stop. This is verified by Settings > About > ESIM Carrier. Tapping that shows what is enabled. It will say RCS when RCS is enabled and just Voice & SMS when it isn't.

Most of this has nothing to do with my situation. Like I've said, my device will not hold on to RCS for very long when it gets it and then it defaults back to SMS. I suppose it could be an issue with T-Mobile. I haven't contacted them so far because their support tends to take a long time to talk to and in my experience, they tend not to know anything.

Apple and Google are alleged to be talking to each other about adding encryption that works on both platforms. iMessage has end-to-end encryption between iOS users. Google has end-to-end encryption between Android users. iOS -><-Android does not have encryption yet unless both sides are using a third party messaging app like WhatsApp.

"It has been a never ending source of frustration for me since Apple made this available"

So why did you want it in the first place? Because you believed the hype about RCS as the be-all, end-all of texting? It’s not.

Thanks for this explanation. It is a helpful comment and actually gives me the information that I need.

It really doesn’t matter that much. I just like the idea of the tapbacks and being able to send videos that aren’t compressed garbage and seeing the typing indicators. Everything that works iPhone to iPhone but doesn’t with SMS. As for just sending a message, it doesn’t matter at all. SMS has always worked fine for that.

You're welcome. I haven't seen any mention that RCS doesn't compress videos sent through messages. I suppose it's possible, but I can't find anything to support this? And you mention Tap Backs. Can you elaborate on how you believe RCS is part of that?

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy Fold so we’ve been playing with it when it works. When I send videos though SMS, they’ve always been garbage and unviewable. When I send them through RCS, they look perfect. When I tapback with RCS turned on, she can see it. When on SMS, it comes up as a separate icon.

I wish I could get it working consistently. I rebooted my phone a couple of weeks ago and it hung on for over a week before going back to SMS. Today I had to reboot and when it came back RCS was on and I got a bunch of old missed messages. After about fifteen minutes it dropped back to SMS. Whatever’s going on, it’s gotten worst for me.

My carrier (ATT) supports RCS. I recently upgraded to ios 18.2 and my GROUP messages are all messed up. Some ppl get them and some don’t. They ALL have iPhones. I tried turning RCS off but that did not restore my ability to send and receive messages to each of them using my longstanding group that contains ONLY phone number links. What should I do?

I am with T-Mobile and they support RCS and WiFi Calling. I think that the problem might be my router.

Friends I have where I am have T-Mobile and iPhones and have no problem with RCS working on their phones while on WiFi. If I shut off WiFi, RCS stays connected. I have been testing it for days with WiFi off and it has not dropped once. When I turn on WiFi, it drops within 30 minutes, every time.

I have contacted my ISP to see if they are doing any port blocking and they say that they aren’t. I have no reason not to trust them. They are a reputable local ISP that has been nothing but good.

I am not blaming Apple or T-Mobile at this point. I know my sample size of “my friends around here” is small but I am literally the only one I know who is having problems.

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.

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 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.

There are no “many ways” RCS fails to work seamlessly with iPhones. RCS does work seamlessly with iPhones for the vast, vast majority of users. It certainly has worked seamlessly for me since day one.

You keep trying to pin this on Apple. Don’t, you don't know what you are talking about and your post is blathering nonsense. You have no idea how RCS works.

That your home network seemingly blocks RCS messages is a problem you have to resolve, likely a router configuration issue or iPhone setting that is wrong. I’m sitting here at my desk with my iPhone connected to my WiFi network and I’m having absolutely no issues sending or receiving RCS message on my iPhone or my Mac. It just works. Explain how that’s possible if your claim about how RCS works is correct.