iOS 18 Public Beta Brings RCS Messaging to Your iPhone - Finally

Apple released the first public beta for iOS 18 on July 15, a little more than a month after the tech giant announced the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta brings many new features to your iPhone, including text effects in Messages and more ways to personalize your lock screen. But one new sought-after feature is Rich Communication Services support in Messages.

While Apple barely mentioned RCS messaging at its WWDC presentation, it’s still set to land on your iPhone with iOS 18 this fall. With RCS messaging, you’ll be able to enjoy features like typing indicators and the “Delivered” status message while messaging Android users. It’ll also help ensure high-quality videos and pictures are sent when texting between iPhone and Android devices.

I recommend downloading a beta on something other than your primary device. Since this isn’t the final version of iOS 18, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, and it’s best to keep those troubles on a secondary device. I downloaded the beta to my old iPhone XR to keep any issues away from my iPhone 14 Pro.

Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18, so more features could land on your iPhone when iOS 18 is released. Apple said iOS 18 would be released to the public this fall, but there’s no definitive date yet.

Here’s how to check if your carrier supports RCS and how to make sure it’s enabled on your iPhone.

Check your carrier’s RCS support

Most carriers support RCS, but not all. For example, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all support RCS on iPhones running iOS 18. If you have another carrier you might not be able to use this feature, but there’s an easy way to check.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap About.
4. Tap Carrier.

When you tap Carrier, it will change to IMS Status and show messaging support details to the right. For example, if your carrier supports RCS, you’ll see Voice, SMS & RCS. If your carrier doesn’t support RCS, you’ll see Voice & SMS.

How to enable or disable RCS on your iPhone

Apple RCS texting — Apple is finally bringing RCS to iPhones with iOS 18.

Apple/CNET

If your carrier supports RCS, here’s how to make sure it’s working on your iPhone.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps near the bottom of the menu.
3. Tap Messages.
4. Tap the toggle next to RCS Messaging under Text Messaging.

Now messaging Android devices will feel more like messaging another iPhone — but you’ll still see those green bubbles. And if you want to disable RCS, follow the above steps again.

What if RCS still isn’t working?

If you updated your iPhone to iOS 18, your carrier supports RCS and you enabled it on your iPhone, but RCS isn’t working for you, you might need to restart your iPhone.

However, if you’ve restarted your iPhone and RCS still isn’t working, it’s probably a bug in iOS 18. Don’t forget, iOS 18 is still in beta, so this feature, and others, might not work properly. There will likely be more betas before the OS is released to the public, and there’s plenty of time for Apple to address these issues. As of now, there’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.

For more on iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with iOS 18 public beta 1 and our iOS 18 beta cheat sheet.