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Shown on the right, Google’s Rich Communications Services (RCS) allows for high‑quality media, typing indicators and read receipts across devices.
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AARP members and readers are invited to submit pressing technology questions they’d like me to tackle in my Tech Guru column, including issues around devices, security, social media and how all the puzzle pieces fit together.
This week’s column comes from a reader who wonders about the different technologies people use to text and chat.
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I keep hearing about RCS messaging, particularly in Google Messages, but I am confused about its features and why it’s a big deal. —Sue M.
Sue, I’ll quickly point out that RCS stands for Rich Communications Services, and the name offers a clue that this messaging type indeed offers some rich chat features, which I will get to below. But let me first take you on a detour.
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AARP writer Ed Baig will answer your most pressing technology questions every Tuesday. Baig previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies.
Over the years, when people with iPhones or other Apple devices texted each other, those messages appeared in a blue bubble, indicating they were sent via Apple’s default iMessage messaging system.
If the missive was instead sent from an iPhone to Android or certain third-party apps, the bubble it appeared in on iPhone was green. Unfairly or not, many in the iPhone crowd stigmatized their green-bubble/Android counterparts.
NPR wrote that green bubble people were made to “feel like unwelcome party crashers.” Tech site CNET referred to it as the “blue bubble divide.” And The New York Times called it “green bubble shaming.”
Where did this shaming come from? The green bubble messages signified that iPhones were engaging with what were considered second-class chat citizens because they were sent as SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages, which used older, less robust communication protocols. It meant, for example, that unlike Apple’s own iMessage system, a green text message chat was capped at the SMS limit of 160 characters, and photos and videos looked blah. There was no end-to-end encryption either, an important privacy/security feature.
Apple finally embraces RCS
That brings me back to RCS. Google had embraced RCS as early as 2019, when Google Messages was still called Android Messages. Android-to-Android RCS communications invited none of the snickering, though the Google camp long called for a kumbaya agreement with Apple.
Indeed, until iOS 18 arrived in September 2024, Apple failed to support the more modern RCS messaging standard that Google championed, which, when it finally did, enabled more seamless communication between the tech rivals and evened the playing field for Android folks who texted their iPhone brethren.
To a degree, anyway. End-to-end encryption from Android to iPhones was still missing.
That changed, at last, just last month, with Apple’s launch of iOS 26.5. Cross-platform RCS chats between supported Android devices and iPhones added end-to-end encryption, meaning wireless carriers, law enforcement, harmful hackers or other third-party eavesdroppers could not read the contents in transit.
On Apple’s side, the RCS end-to-end encryption is still in beta testing. And iMessage itself is still an Apple-only thing.
Since you asked specifically, Sue, about Google Messages, you have a few ways to tell if a conversation is encrypted. You may see a banner that says “RCS chat with contact name or phone number.” Or a lock icon on the Send button when you compose a message. Or an actual note that tells you the chat is end-to-end encrypted.
If you don’t see any of those indicators, make sure that you and the person you are chatting with have the latest version of the Google Messages app, which is the default on most Android phones. And that RCS chats are turned on in the app.
Your wireless provider also must support end-to-end encryption, though the major ones certainly do.
More features come through RCS
Beyond end-to-end encryption, RCS messages, like iMessage, offer a variety of helpful features. For starters, you can send text links and share high-resolution pictures and videos. You can also display typing indicators that let a recipient know when the person they’re chatting with is composing a response, as well as read receipts that visually let a sender know when their message was presumably seen.
RCS also lets people send messages of any length with no stringent, SMS-like character caps. Group messaging, again like iMessage, was also modernized. Certain interactive buttons and business chat functions are also supported.
If you do have an iPhone, you can even send RCS messages instead of iMessage to other Apple devices, as long as Text Message Forwarding is turned on. Go to Settings | Apps | Messages | Text Message Forwarding. Choose whichever device or devices you will allow to send and receive text messages from your phone.
If you scroll down in Messages Settings on iPhone, you will also see a listing for RCS Messaging. Tap the setting to enable sending and receiving such messages on the device, and for a switch to turn on end-to-end encryption.
If you do turn these on, you will rarely, if ever, have to think about them. In theory, both sides win: Your iPhone will continue to send iMessages to other Apple devices and, where appropriate, RCS to Android.
If neither is possible, likely because of a poor or inactive internet connection or because the recipient’s device does not support these more advanced messaging capabilities, missives will default to SMS. It is important to point out another advantage for RCS and iMessage: they work over both Wi-Fi and mobile data. SMS messages only work on cellular networks.
Even with the eventual agreement on these messaging protocols between Apple and Google, messages sent via RCS to Android or other devices are still wrapped in green bubbles. Hopefully, now absent any stigma.
In the U.S., the iOS mobile operating system used on iPhones has about a 61.5 percent market share, compared to about 38.5 percent for Android, according to Statcounter Global Stats.
Worldwide, Android is more dominant, with a 68 percent share, compared to 32 percent for iOS.
Bonus tip: Android adds fake-call detection tool via RCS
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making it harder to detect spoofed phone calls. If Mom calls, for example, can you be sure it’s Mom, even though it sounds just like her, right down to the tone of her voice?
Google is adding a tool to the Phone by Google, Contacts and Google Messages apps on Android 12 and later devices that promises to detect when a caller in your contacts isn’t who they claim to be. You’ll get instant audio and haptic warnings if that is the case, and you can hang up.
The feature will be on by default.
It works through a real-time digital handshake, a signal that uses RCS and end-to-end encryption to determine when a call is legit. If that signal is missing, the tool can ping your contact’s real device to see if that phone is making the call.
The new tool rolls out this month, starting with Google’s own Pixel devices. But Google says that since the feature is built on the open RCS standard, other apps and manufacturers can adopt the technology as well.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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