Sending messages between iPhone and Android should be easy, or at the very least, easier than it is now, and yet things don’t feel like they’ve changed much in the past few years. It just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Owners of an iPhone have Messages, and owners of an Android have their own respective equivalent, but the two don’t play as nicely as you might expect.
Blue bubbles on the iPhone get an assortment of cute and friendly ways to respond to messages, while green messages are just simply texts send to an Android, or some other minor mobile maker.
It’s something a technology called Rich Communication Services (RCS) can fix, providing interoperability, a technical term that basically means “things working together”. In the world of iOS and Android, interoperability means the ability for iPhone and Android owners to send messages with features that play nicely between each other.
Without RCS, however, and the messages are more or less just text stripped. No reactions, no niceties, and that’s before we talk about the whole security side of things.
Sent you 4K photos, reactions, stickers, and effects ✨ Sent with iMessage
Beyond those aspects, there’s the issue of message security, and the idea of better security for the texts you send and receive. Depending on what platforms you use, one technology stands out and is seen as the gold standard in the area: end-to-end encryption.
Simply put, the idea of end-to-end encryption sees each end of the message chain given its own way of decrypting a message, making it secure for both people communicating.
No one can intercept the message chain, because they lack the way of deciphering it, and your messages are secured.
It’s a technology you can find on WhatsApp and Signal, though some systems are actually switching it off.
While Meta deactivated end-to-end encryption on Instagram only recently, Apple has chimed in with news that it’s beginning to roll out end-to-end encryption for users of RCS, uniting iPhone and Android messages to deliver a more complete message service and also boosting security for the both of them.
There’s only one problem: where is it?
Where is RCS in Australia?
It’s 2026, and the so-called Rich Communication Services known as “RCS” format has yet to materialise for Australian phone owners. And unfortunately, you can’t point the finger at either Apple or Google.
Back in 2024, iOS 18 brought the RCS capability to the iPhone, while RCS has technically been around on Android since 2015. Over a decade may well have technically gone by, but operators around the world didn’t really start embracing it until Google rolled out a system to connects with RCS called “Jibe” that carriers can use.
Parts of the world definitely have RCS, but not Australia. No, we’re waiting for the telcos to catch up.
Nearly two years on from when iPhones officially saw RCS support in Australia, and much longer for folks in the Android camp, Australian telcos are seemingly still no closer to rolling out the platform consistency technology known as RCS, and we are simply confused.
For instance, the combination of TPG and Vodafone didn’t have any updates on an RCS rollout, with a spokesperson noting instead that:
“Vodafone is committed to delivering the best possible messaging experience for our customers. With our mobile network now reaching over one million square kilometres, we’re excited about the potential of RCS to complement this expansion and enhance how Australians connect. We’re actively exploring how best to bring this capability to our customers and look forward to sharing more updates in the near future.”
That’s a bit of a nothing-burger answer that doesn’t fix anything for its customers.
Meanwhile, the nation’s biggest telco, Telstra said things were happening, but didn’t say much more:
“Telstra continues to move towards enabling RCS Messaging and is actively engaged on how we support this. We are looking at the necessary steps and will keep customers updated as things progress.”
In short, Telstra isn’t saying this year or next year, but rather that it’s working on something, which might be the same as Vodafone, but seems ever so slightly more substantial.
Optus wouldn’t say much either, though did note that its network technically supports RCS, but only for Android and not for messages between iOS to Android, which is very much the point.
No RCS and end-to-end SMS for Australia… yet
What that means is that not only are Australian iPhone and Android customers not going to message with all the cool features each platform offers, but they’ll also miss out on the extra encryption being afforded by these additions.
It means if you want to talk to friends that own a different device and you also want security, SMS and texting isn’t really what you should be using in Australia.
Rather, you want to use WhatsApp or Signal, or one of the handful of platforms that comes in an app and supports end-to-end encryption, now that Instagram isn’t one of them.
For the telcos considering the support, it would be wise to implement sooner rather than later. While Australia can feel like it’s ahead of the game in many ways, this is one area where the local telcos are letting the team down.
RCS isn’t a new piece of technology, nor is it a remarkably new standard, and yet Australian telcos are still largely in a holding pattern working on pretty much everything else. Here’s hoping it actually is coming soon, otherwise everyone might as well just stick with a messaging platform to bypass SMS entirely.
