Some Carriers Are Still Missing RCS on iPhone: Who’s to Blame?

Five months ago, iOS 18 began rolling out, and that meant Android and iPhone users could finally text over RCS. Well, most of them. There’s a hold up with several smaller carriers, and it seems Apple is to blame.

Why Does RCS Matter?

Before we start pointing fingers, let’s talk about what RCS actually is and why widespread support for it matters. RCS is essentially the upgraded version of the old SMS standard. It makes classic text messaging feel a lot more like modern instant messenger apps.

RCS features include the ability to see when someone is typing, read reciepts on messages (if they enable it), emote reactions, and much higher quality photos and videos. If you’re reading this as an iPhone owner, RCS probably sounds a lot like iMessage–and you’d be right. The cool thing about RCS, though, is you can enjoy those same features with your Android friends, too.

That last part is the key to why getting RCS support on as many devices as possible is important. It drastically improves the text messaging experience between iPhones and Android phones, but that’s can’t happen if iPhone owners on certain carriers can’t enable RCS.

U.S. Carriers Without RCS Support on iPhone

Apple provides a full list of carrier support and features for the iPhone in various parts of the world. There are over 40 carriers listed for the U.S., and a surprising number of them still lack “RCS messaging” as a feature. The big carriers–AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon–all have it, but many of their MVNOs do not. Here are a few of the more popular MVNOs still lacking RCS support on iPhones:

• Cox Mobile
• Google Fi Wireless (not listed at all)
• Mint Mobile
• Simple Mobile
• Ting
• Ultra Mobile

Last December, an iOS update expanded support for RCS to many smaller carriers, such as Boost Mobile and Visible. But there are people stuck waiting for RCS support to come to their iPhone because of the carrier they use. These carriers, by the way, all have RCS support on Android devices–this is specifically an iPhone problem.

I first noticed this issue when my partner switched from T-Mobile to Google Fi in January. We had been enjoying RCS messaging between her iPhone and my Android phone, but then it suddenly wasn’t working anymore. That’s when I discovered we weren’t the only ones left out in the cold.

Who’s Fault is it?

Let’s get down to business. Who should we be blaming this on? Is it Google’s fault since they operate Google Fi? Or does Apple have something to do with it? According to Google, it’s entirely up to Apple. The company had this to say in a statement to 9to5Google last September:

“We have been working for a long time to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and are excited that Apple is taking steps to adopt RCS with the launch of iOS 18. At launch, Fi users with an Android phone will be able to communicate over RCS with iPhone users that have RCS interoperability enabled. Only Apple has the ability to enable RCS interoperability for iPhone users on Fi, and our hope is that they will do so in the near future.”

That sounds pretty straightforward, but Google is not some pillar of honesty. It’s a company like any other. In researching this issue, I found contradictory opinions on the matter, claiming Google (and other MVNOs) have to enable it themselves. But that didn’t make much sense to me. Why would Google spend years trying to get Apple to adopt RCS only to leave out their own customers on iPhones?

The answer is, they wouldn’t. This indeed Apple’s doing, and it all has to do with carrier bundles. A carrier bundle is essentially a collection of settings and customizations related to a specific carrier. Things like voice mail numbers, MMS and APN settings, tethering, etc. When someone activates a SIM, the iPhone grabs the appropriate bundle to get things working.

So, what seems to be happening is Apple hasn’t included RCS messaging in all its carrier bundles. Google Fi and the other MVNOs that are not directly owned by one of the big three networks are most likely using generic catch-all carrier bundles that don’t have RCS messaging. The big carriers and their subsidies have custom carrier bundles.

That’s why T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile have RCS messaging on iPhone, but Google Fi and Mint Mobile, which use T-Mobile’s network, do not. Until these unsupported carriers get their own custom bundles, they’re likely stuck without RCS.

It Might Not Be That Simple

Unfortunately, the situation is not as simple as I’d like to believe. A lot of the information about carrier bundles is not made available to the public. I’m not totally clear on how the relationship with Apple and carriers works, but it’s possible Apple is not the only guilty party.

Some people claim that carriers pay to register their custom bundles, and then those are made available to phone vendors, such as Apple. If a carrier does not pay for a custom bundle, it uses a generic one. Google Fi is allegedly one of the carriers that does not pay for a custom profile.

There are other claims that it has to do with selling iPhones. Some say a carrier needs to sell a certain number of iPhones for Apple to implememnt a custom carrier bundle. Others claim it’s just about selling iPhones at all–which Google Fi does not–but Mint Mobile and some of the other MVNOs without RCS support do sell iPhones. It’s all very speculative.

At the end of the day, all we really have is Google’s word on the subject, but one thing is certain: this sucks for customers. It’s incredibly frustrating that RCS has been available on iPhones for over five months and there are still people who can’t use it. Someone needs to fix this ASAP.