Texting between iPhone and Android devices gets much better in iOS 27 – and it’s not before time
RCS messaging between Android and iPhone users is getting better in iOS 27 with better reply and reaction options.
Apple’s eventual adoption of Rich Communication Services messaging has improved the experience of texting between iPhone and Android devices significantly in the last couple of years.
Since iOS 18, there’s been high resolution images, delivery reports, and proper reactions! Ah, it’s been bliss compared to what came before. Now, in iOS 27, it appears things will be fine-tuned further. iOS 27 beta 2 is out for developers today and introduces support for inline replies and photo reactions between iPhone and Android users (via MacRumors).
In the beta, it’s now possible to long press on a message to see an option to reply and for that reply to be theaded below – just like in an iMessage-to-iMessage chat. The same goes for tapback/reactions to images and video. Those ‘I need to respond to this but can’t be bothered to type a text out’ reactions will now appear next to the image just like they do on iMessage following the update. Handy.
iOS 27 is expected to arrive in September this year. And, while an appearance in the beta isn’t a total guarantee it’ll be available in the final version, we don’t see a reason why this would be held off.
The latest improvements to RCS messaging between iPhone and Android come after iOS 26.5 provided perhaps the most significant. The launch of end-to-end encryption between RCS chats offered the same protections for iPhone-to-Android messages as iPhone-to-iPhone and Android-to-Android messages.
Apple said on May 11 that “Starting today, end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging begins rolling out in beta for iPhone users running iOS 26.5 with supported carriers and Android users on the latest version of Google Messages. When RCS messages are end-to-end encrypted, they can’t be read while they’re sent between devices. Users will know that a conversation is end-to-end encrypted when they see a new lock icon in their RCS chats. Encryption is on by default and will be automatically enabled over time for new and existing RCS conversations.”
Chris Smith
