iOS 18 Improves Apple Messaging App, But Not Enough

On 23 September, Apple will release iOS 18. It will bring a lot of new features and improvements to existinng apps, especially the chats when at least one Android phone user is involved.

Some who were given an opportunity to test the changes confirmed that there is indeed major improvements to sharing photos and video and managing chats. However, the green bubbles remain and, in most cases, chats with Android friends still had security and other compromises that Apple could have avoided.

In some important ways, Apple’s messaging app remains stuck in the flip-phone era, which undermines everyone’s message security and makes your group chats trash (and not in the fun way).

Apple largely blames limitations in the technology that meshes iPhone and Android messaging apps. That’s an incomplete explanation. Apple’s own choices also make chats with Android devices worse.

Apple’s iMessage is pretty great, but you’re only fully using it when everyone you chat with is using Apple devices, too.

When your iPhone chats involve one or more people with Android phones, you’re not actually using Apple’s technology. Instead, everyone’s messages are funneled over flip-phone era SMS technology in the dreaded green bubbles that you get every time you message someone with a non-Apple device.

What changed with iOS 18 is Apple stitched its Messages app with a global standard update to SMS known as RCS.

While now you see "text message" in your chat box when you’re messaging with Android friends, with iOS 18 you'll all see "RCS" most of the time. That shows everyone in your chat has some (but not all) capabilities of purely internet-based chat apps like WhatsApp.