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

Good question. I don't know. If I feel adventurous I'll write all my contacts and find out their carrier, phone model, etc. to try to figure it out. Someone said only some Samsung phones on Verizon, so that makes sense.

Allen wrote:

Someone said only some Samsung phones on Verizon, so that makes sense.

As I noted, the article that information is from seems to be wrong. I can see that I have RCS on my iPhone. I didn't even need to contact Verizon. So, I think Verizon hasn't properly updated its website. This calls into question whether the rest of what they said, that there is no carrier interoperability, may also be wrong.

iPhone 14 pro Max on Verizon (work phone). My settings show only voice and SMS (my personal Pixel 9 Pro is also Verizon and I have RCS working no problem), however, in a test text between my Pixel and iPhone, I did notice that the reaction from the Android showed on the message itself (not "👍 to message") on the iPhone, so that's a step in the right direction.

I been having and issue we’re my friends android doesn’t support rcs and take forever for my phone to convert to sms while if there’s a group chat with more than one iPhone with iOS 18 with rcs turned on one one of the iPhone received the message it won’t convert to sms at all

But when you click on the carrier and click to change it to show RCS messaging etc, once you leave the settings app, it automatically goes right back to saying “Verizon”. At least on my phone is does. I have the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

my husband and I both have Verizon and he has some brand new android and it won’t work when I text him, it just sends as SMS. Yet when I text my mom’s android phone who isn’t through Verizon, it shows RCS as working. Super odd.

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.

I was android and had rcs and was able to use the send later option to anyone. Now I have IPhone and with RCS, only some of my contacts have the option to send later not can I use send later within to a group chat as I was able to with android.

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.

That isn’t the problem. The problem is that not all Android PHONES support RCS. And those that do need a separate messaging app; it is not built in to Android.

TMARULES wrote:

Send later only works iPhone to iPhone. Apple for some reason wanted to separate iPhone users from their Android friends.

Send Later only works if the receiving non-iPhone supports the correct version of the Google or Samsung Messaging app.

I've tried several Android phones where RCS is working but no send later option. I only get the send later option for other iPhone users. Someone on another iPhone forum said it's iPhone to iPhone only. So, I don't know, just know it's not working for Android even if rcs is working.

Mine isn’t working. I just switched to tmobile from att along with my husband, got the new 16 pro max. We tested RCS messaging with the same android user. For some reason he can send it via RCS but I cannot. I’ve tried everything suggested here but nothing works, I’m lost

I have ATT and just bought the 16 pro max. For some odd reason, it doesn’t support RCS and still says waiting for activation. When I was using my 15 pro max, it supporters it. I wonder what the issue is

That’s bot my issue. My issue is I am on T-Mobile. My RCS is on, but under Carrier, it only slows for SMS and voice and not RCS. Because of that I cannot send an RCS message. I went back and forth between T-Mobile and Apple about fixing it. They are basically pointing fingers. I did try to have my ESIM deleted and a new installed to see if it would fix the problem and that didn’t work either. So nothing is getting resolved.

In the US RCS works on all Android phones made this decade, even prepaid budget android phones that are under $100 on Amazon. Any android phone running Android 5 or later is capable of RCS messaging according to the Android documentation. The small number of people who may lack access to RCS on their android are restricted by their carrier not the phone, but all major US carriers support RCS now. Some smaller cell carriers were slow to adopt it at first but at this point I cant find anything online regarding a carrier that still doesn't support it .