RCS has not solved the green bubble problem

In Messages on iPhone, you can now use SMS, RCS, end-to-end encrypted RCS, and iMessage. Sure, sending media to Android is best, but everything else is more confusing and frustrating than ever.

Sometimes a clever marketing gimmick or feature push can lead to deep-rooted societal divisions. What started as a way to show users that they weren’t using iMessage and were potentially being nickeled and dimeed for every text message is now, annoyingly, something of a status symbol.

The simple act of texting has become a controversial and sometimes irritating aspect of using a smartphone. Whether you care about technology or not, if you’re an iPhone user, you’ve at least subconsciously reacted to green bubble text.

For the Android user, it’s a different story. When they text an iPhone user, most of the time it feels like they are texting anyone. Then there’s the double text, a “sent with balloons” or “Wesley liked this text” that intrusively intrudes into the chat.

There has to be a better way.

RCS is just another bandage

RCS is the bastard child of Internet Protocol Messaging which is still tied to carriers in one way or another. It’s a stupid idea that has risen to the top of stupid ideas and established itself as the most appropriate stupid idea.

The concept: “Let’s replace the old SMS protocol controlled by operators with a new one still controlled by operators.”

Fortunately, the protocol it’s better. Some reactions appear as expected in Android user chat, images are no longer potato-quality, and you can actually send 4K video.

The fact is that this has only made things more complicated and frustrating for the end user, especially those using iPhone.

Now, not only do you have to pay attention to what type of message it is, green or blue, but you also have to know if it’s an SMS or an RCS. iOS 26.5 adds another difficulty: end-to-end encryption.

We went from two potential endpoints to four. Great work, team.

Image source: XKCD comic “Standards”

Not only that, but this “beta” feature for E2EE appears to be interrupting RCS chats for some users. This is likely out of Apple’s control and more of a carrier/device issue.

When using RCS, you need to consider the device each person is using, the software version, the carriers used, and whether or not end-to-end encryption has been enabled.

You don’t have this problem with iMessage. It works.

It’s easy to blame Apple

Once upon a time, there was this idea that Apple could flip a switch and bring iMessage to Android whenever it wanted. That they eagerly kept it exclusively for customer lockout.

iMessage continues to view blue bubbles as superior

There is some truth to the latter, but the former is certainly not accurate. Perhaps iMessage started out as a much less complex service, even with its end-to-end encryption.

But once the secure element and biometrics were involved, iMessage became more dependent on the hardware involved in the conversation.

Perhaps Apple could offer iMessage only to certain Android phones with elements like Samsung Knox or the Pixel version of Secure Element. But that would create yet another layer of complexity and inconvenience that users will have to overcome.

Google has spent years blaming Apple for breaking email protocols. However, if we look at the situation, it is the opposite.

Cross-platform messaging with native apps shouldn’t be so complicated

If Google had bothered to implement similar systems in the early days of Android, it would have had a competitive and dominant Internet messaging protocol. Instead, it has an ecosystem where users can have three separate apps installed by default for texting.

I don’t want a less secure, more open iMessage, nor a carrier-controlled, fractured, complicated protocol. Apple had no interest in developing a separate protocol that could eventually replace iMessage, but Google obviously did.

But it never bothered. Google has its Mail app, sure, but it doesn’t compare in features or implementation to Apple’s.

It’s not like Google doesn’t have the money and engineering talent to create a killer universal chat app. He just chose not to, for whatever reason.

Look at Meta’s Facebook Messenger app. It’s extremely complicated and insecure, but it exists and is very popular.

All Google had to do was offer the Android version of iMessage, but also include it on iPhone, and it could have dominated the market. But there is no advertising revenue or financial incentive to do so.

Googlebook brings AI to your cursor

Look at Google’s recent Android event where it announced a set of AI tools that no one asked for and a “Googlebook” that is a tragic merger of ChromeOS and Android. Just shake your mouse and the AI ​​will appear! No thanks.

There’s another reason why Google hasn’t bothered with a new cross-platform messaging app. It’s probably the same reason Apple hasn’t tried it either: it’s not easy.

The Android ecosystem is simply too fragmented to create a secure software stack with minimal expectations of performance and security features across all devices. There are simply too many variables to consider in Android.

Where is messaging today?

I have a lot of group chats, and most of them are iMessage based. A couple, more recently, have Android participants.

Add an Android user to a previous iMessage group chat and it’s a big part of your experience

Having Android users as friends is not a bad thing. I want them included, but this added some problems.

Every few messages it says “you renamed this chat”. I also encountered a bug stating that my message cannot be sent.

It fails and fails, and I just have to wait until it doesn’t. This was present in iOS 26.4 and will likely get worse with iOS 26.5.

The names and pictures from our group chats have remained, so that’s nice. But if we use a reaction beyond the couple chosen by RCS, it appears as “the person reacted with an emoji”.

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We also can’t use certain iMessage-specific features, such as polls.

RCS is way above SMS, absolutely. I even turned off SMS fallback and MMS messaging to make sure I only use RCS.

I’m not personally invested in how these things work on Android devices. These people bought these devices for whatever reason, and they can live with what group chat looks like.

Of course, I’d like to see Google improve this aspect as well, but that seems unlikely. They just don’t seem to care.

Repair RCS on iPhone

Apple, on the other hand, should work its usual magic to improve interaction with Android users. This would also satisfy their demand for feature exclusivity and lock-in.

RCS is still under development so things can improve

Basically what I want is for Apple’s Messages app to intelligently handle any chat involving RCS or SMS. Position reactions appropriately and don’t display the message “person reacted with an emoji.” The same goes for message effects etc.

Polish away the rough edges and make the conversation more natural. We already have an iPhone, so there’s no need to convince us by making green bubbles a worse experience.

Besides, Apple should offer more apps on Android so that sharing Apple features won’t be so inconvenient. We have shared photo albums in Photos for our group chats, but Android users can’t participate.

Apple invitations on Android go through a browser. Other links to Apple services are basically useless.

At least Android has Apple Music and Apple TV. But it should contain Apple Podcasts, Apple Maps and Apple Photos.

Apple should make messaging effective on all platforms, even if Google doesn’t

Imagine SharePlay with Android users through Apple apps. Apple could introduce these other apps to give Android users a taste of what they might be missing on iPhone.

Apple has nothing to fear. If anything, it might gain paying customers.

Such a change could even help reduce social problems like harassment for green bubbles. If the experience is less bad, but still not as good as iMessage, it’s a win-win.

I’m glad RCS exists and is moving toward universal end-to-end encryption. I just wish it wasn’t all so finicky.

No one should ever think about what chat protocol they use in 2026, and yet Apple’s green/blue bubbles do just that. There should be a change.