Apple has released a series of software updates across its line of products. In addition, it released the new iPhone 16, the flagship of its company and its biggest money maker.
One key improvement is the roll out of RCS to iPhones. This will make text communication between iPhones and Androids easier, such as being able to share high resolution pictures. The Verge reports:
With RCS on iOS, you’ll get major improvements like high-resolution media, typing indicators, and read receipts when you’re texting with people on other phones that also support RCS. In its iOS 18 press release, Apple also highlights support for “more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.”
RCS chats are still missing many features Apple bakes in for iMessage conversations, like being able to schedule messages to send later or add animated text effects to what you write. But with RCS support, a lot of the basics are now available.
The new update is still missing key features, such as “Apple Intelligence”, Apple’s new AI system. Forbes says:
As hundreds of millions of iPhone users update their devices to iOS 18, tinting their home screens and navigating their new Photos app, the reality is that this update is more about what’s missing than what has been released. No Apple Intelligence—at least not yet, and another gaping omission that has also been confirmed.
This bad news impacts RCS—the biggest non-AI update coming with iOS 18, that brings rich messaging features to stock iPhone-to-Android messaging for the first time, but which The Washington Post warns, leaves “chats with Android friends still [with] security and other compromises that Apple could have avoided.”
Customers will be waiting for the Apple Intelligence update sometime in the Fall. A major caveat, however, is that this will only work on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and this year’s iPhone 16s.
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