RCS on iPhone rolling out to more carriers around the world with iOS 18 beta 3

July 9, 2024

2 min read

As we reported last month, the second beta of iOS 18 released to developers has finally enabled RCS messaging support on the iPhone – but only for some US mobile carriers. Now with iOS 18 beta 3, which was released on Monday, Apple is enabling RCS for more carriers around the world.

RCS on iPhone with iOS 18

As seen by 9to5Mac in the iOS 18 beta 3 code, the update enables RCS support on the iPhone for more carriers. And for the first time, RCS support is being rolled out to countries overseas.

For instance, customers of Videotron, Telus Mobility, and Bell in Canada can now experience RCS on an iPhone running the latest iOS 18 beta. This also applies to Telefonica in Spain, SFR in France, and O2 in Germany. In the US, the feature works with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

With RCS, iPhone users can send rich messages with audio and larger media files to Android users. RCS also has read receipts, something that was previously exclusive to iMessage and other instant messaging apps. Although RCS messages still have green bubbles, the Messages app will show the label “Text Message – RCS” in the conversation.

If you’ve already updated your iPhone to the latest iOS 18 beta and use one of these carriers, you can try enabling RCS by going to Settings > Apps > Messages. If the RCS toggle isn’t showing up for you, it’s probably because your carrier doesn’t yet provide RCS support on the iPhone.

Carriers have to ship an updated settings bundle to enable RCS on the iPhone, and these bundles are shipped with new beta versions of iOS. This means that more carriers may enable RCS support before the official release of iOS 18 this fall.