Can you get RCS messaging on your iPhone? Here’s how to find out and enable it in iOS 18

With the official launch of iOS 18 this week, the iPhone operating system update brings a ton of new features, including support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) in the Messages app.

However, just because your iPhone can now send RCS messages doesn’t mean your network carrier will support this feature. RCS must be enabled by your carrier.

RCS is something of a replacement for SMS and MMS, which have become obsolete. Unlike Apple’s iMessage, RCS is designed to work within your standard messaging app while offering read receipts and live typing indicators.

With the arrival of the iPhone, Apple owners can finally send high-quality images and videos to Android users and vice versa via RCS messaging instead of the highly compressed images that currently occur. Android to iOS messages will still have the green bubble, but now the Messages app will display “SMS – RCS” in the feed.

Fortunately, Apple has a list on its wireless carrier support page that shows which carriers support RCS on your iPhone.

In the US, all three major carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, support RCS out of the box. However, when you get to smaller carriers, the picture is very variable. Some carriers, like Metro and US Cellular, which are supported by T-Mobile, support RCS, but others, like Mint Mobile and Ryan Reynolds’ Boost Mobile, do not currently support it.

Outside of the US, some carriers in Canada, Europe, and Asia offer RCS support, but it is not universal. In general, the larger carriers seem to offer RCS service.

How to Get RCS Messaging on Your iPhone

ios 18 messages with rcs support showing tapback

(Image credit: Future)

To get RCS messaging, you need to update your iPhone to iOS 18. Once that’s done, you can enable RCS by:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Applications.
3. Tap Messages
4. Select RCS Messaging under Text Messaging
5. Now tap the button next to RCS Messaging

You should see RCS as an option. If you don’t see it, it means your carrier doesn’t support RCS yet.

Additionally, your carrier must send an update that enables support on your iPhone. In recent months, these carrier updates have only been released with new iOS 18 betas. If RCS isn’t available yet, you may have to wait for a carrier update. Otherwise, more carriers are expected to add RCS support in the coming months.

The iOS 18 update is available for download now if you have an iPhone XR or later. If you haven’t updated yet, you can do so by going to Settings — General — Software Update.