Apple began testing the iOS 27 software release in early June, immediately after revealing the upcoming iPhone operating system at WWDC 2026. The first iOS 27 developer beta was made available for download right after the keynote. While the revamped Siri experience and new Apple Intelligence features may be the headline features of iOS 27, the operating system has other features that might appeal to iPhone users. This includes a new RCS messaging feature that Android users who chat with iPhone owners can enjoy. The new feature was released in iOS 27 beta 2 which Apple made available to developers in late June. It improves cross-platform communication between iPhones and Android devices, allowing users to reply to a specific message in chat, just like the feature works in other instant messaging apps, including iMessage.
Supporting online responses could make conversations clearer for both parties, helping to reduce the risk of responses being lost or misinterpreted. This can be particularly useful when discussing sensitive topics where clarity is important, or during group discussions. All you have to do to reply to a specific text message is long-press it, like you would in an iMessage conversation, and select the option Answer option in the menu that appears. You can also swipe right on a message for quick access.
How to get the new RCS email features in iOS 27
In addition to allowing iPhone users to reply to a single line in chat, iOS 27 also displays emoji reactions in a way similar to iMessage. Emoji suggestions appear at the top of a reply, according to images shared by Woozad. But the change is that reactions now display correctly for Android users in chat, instead of showing a text descriptor for the emoji action like “User X liked a post.” iOS 27 beta testers also confirmed that emoji reactions should display correctly on Android.
New in iOS 27: If you react to an image sent via RCS, it will now display correctly on the Android user’s side instead of saying “Aaron liked an image”.
— Aaron (@aaronp613) June 22, 2026
That said, iPhone users can’t access the new RCS features in iOS 27 unless they download the developer beta, available now, or the public beta which is expected to roll out later. These beta versions are known to be unstable, so we do not recommend installing them. Most users will have to wait until September to use the new RCS features in iOS 27. Apple typically releases new versions of iOS in mid-September, around the time the new iPhone line launches. While the feature is available, carriers must also support RCS Messaging for iPhone users to use it, and users must enable RCS Messaging in the Settings app.
Android users don’t need to do anything to enjoy the enhanced RCS texting experience with iPhone owners. Inline replies and emoji reactions should appear in chats as soon as the iPhone user updates their device to iOS 27 beta 2 or later. Android users won’t have to worry about separate app updates.
RCS messaging got an even bigger upgrade on iPhone this year
RCS text bubbles remain green in iOS 27, the same color associated with standard text messages supported in the iPhone’s Messages app. This allows iPhone users to differentiate between Apple’s proprietary iMessage platform and other text messages supported within the app. But the blue versus green bubble war seems to be a thing of the past, given that RCS has been available for richer iPhone to Android chat experiences for the past three years. Apple added RCS support to iOS 18 in 2024, improving functionality along the way. These improvements also improved texting for Android users who regularly message iPhone users, something Google has long championed.
Support in iOS 27 beta 2 for threaded replies and improved emoji reactions to text and media content shared in chats are useful additions to the RCS iPhone to Android chat system. But the biggest update came in mid-May this year, when Apple announced support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging in iOS 26.5. iMessage chats have been end-to-end encrypted since Apple launched the platform. Incidentally, Google started adding encryption to RCS years ago. However, cross-platform RCS SMS did not support encryption until this year. Encrypted messaging adds enhanced privacy and security to SMS, and it’s a feature users may want in any instant messaging app, whether it’s the default Messages app on iPhone, Meta’s WhatsApp, or other alternatives.
