It may not seem like much, but this is actually pretty big news. Apple is going to bring an end to the green bubble animosity in text messaging. For the uninitiated, the green bubble thing is when someone with an iPhone is texting with someone who does not own an iPhone, and therefore does not have iMessage. Their messages will appear in a green bubble on the iPhone user’s end rather than blue, to the chagrin of many. The big deal here isn’t the difference in bubble colors, but what those colors represent.
iMessage doesn’t support Rich Communication Services (RCS), which allows for enhanced messaging features like read receipts, showing when someone is typing, sending videos and more. Apple instead uses its own system to support these features, meaning that anyone trying to text an iMessage user can’t use these features unless they’re also using iMessage, which is only available on Apple devices.
After years of public pressure and refusals, Apple has changed course and announced that it will be introducing RCS to iMessage. “RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS,” the company stated. Support for RCS is expected to be rolled out in iOS, the iPhone’s operating system, sometime next year.
