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Green Bubble Emoji Reactions From Android Users Now Show Up Properly on iPhones

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With the launch of iOS 18, Apple added support for RCS, or Rich Communication Services. ‌RCS‌ replaces SMS/MMS as the default messaging standard for any "green bubble" conversations, and because it's more modern, it supports features like read receipts and typing indicators.

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‌RCS‌ is also supposed to support emoji reactions from Android users, but it wasn't working properly when iOS 18 launched. It's not clear what changed, but The Verge says that something that Google or Apple tweaked made it work as of this week.

When an Android user uses an emoji reaction to a message that you've sent over ‌RCS‌, the emoji will now show up in line with the message bubble, just like it does on with iOS Tapback reactions.

Prior to now, if an Android user used an emoji reaction to a message in a conversation with an iPhone user, the emoji would show up on a separate line, which was confusing and not how the feature was meant to work.

The Verge says it tested emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and several different Android phones, and reactions display both ways as intended.

Tags: Android, RCS Guide

Top Rated Comments

S
SoldOnApple
18 months ago
Alternate app stores in EU, rich messaging with Android, emulators in the App Store. What a time to be alive.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AndiG Avatar
AndiG
18 months ago

I still have RCS turned off. Never mind emoji reactions. Messages - inbound and outbound - aren’t arriving at their destination. RCS is too buggy and unreliable. And it’s not just me and others with iPhones. Friends with Android phones have no use for RCS either. And yes, we all have carriers that support RCS.
You are confusing something. The name of the buggy thing is iMessage while RCS is a new standard most carriers support. For improved security, you should turn off iMessage.

Just search the net for iMessage exploits, Operation Triangulation, Darcula, zero click iMessage expolit, or - younameit.

https://medium.com/@MorristownMinute/the-risks-of-imessage-why-disabling-it-could-enhance-your-security-fac519f80c53

If you want to remotely hack an iPhone - it is iMessages, just the first exploit in a long chain, but here is where it all starts. Or more general Messages. Messages is such a complex and blown up App, just because iMessage is so complex and it will never be fixed.

We in the EU can now delete Messages and install another lean and mean messenger.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
WarmWinterHat
18 months ago

I still have RCS turned off. Never mind emoji reactions. Messages - inbound and outbound - aren’t arriving at their destination. RCS is too buggy and unreliable. And it’s not just me and others with iPhones. Friends with Android phones have no use for RCS either. And yes, we all have carriers that support RCS.
It’s been working perfect between my wife (Pixel 8) and myself, and other various android people I text.. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
trueluck Avatar
trueluck
18 months ago

Bro's at 97% and already has low power mode on
That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always in low power mode…
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
lkrupp
18 months ago

Android user here. I would never use a message app by Google. Why do you need it, if you already have WhatsApp, Threema, Signal, Skype and Telegram? RCS is just a trick by Google to collect even more information.
Except that Google didn’t invent RCS.

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA)developed Rich Communication Services (RCS). The GSMA is a group of network operators from around the world that works with device manufacturers, software companies, and operating system providers.

Google decided to implement its own version with encryption, then tried to bully Apple into supporting it. Apple’s version of RCS supports the GSMA standard, not Google’s.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9
9982225
18 months ago
In all my years of having an iPhone and having people in my life who use Android it's never once been an issue. Not sure what the problem was.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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