After years of campaigning from Google, Apple announced in November that RCS messaging will be arriving on the iPhone in 2024. While Apple hasn't advised of when that would be, it seems the most opportune time would be in iOS 18.
Support for the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSM Association will "offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS," Apple said in a statement.
RCS support for iMessage is probably going to happen in iOS 18.
While good news for text users, the announcement isn't exactly declaring cut-and-dry support. Apple won't be adopting proprietary extensions to its implementation, such as Google's one that adds end-to-end encryption, with it preferring to work with GSMA to add encryption to the main profile itself.
For Android users who hope RCS will put blue iMessage text bubble snobbery to an end, they're out of luck. Apple will still continue to use blue bubbles for iPhone users and green for Android, even under RCS.
