Here's Google's response to Apple's RCS announcement

For years, Google has been coaxing Apple into adopting rich communication services (RCS). It has even gone as far as to create the ad campaign #GetTheMessage to pressure Apple into supporting the standard. Now that Apple has finally given in, Google has responded to the company’s announcement.

Surprising many across the internet, Apple announced today that it plans to add support for RCS in iMessage starting in 2024. Despite Google’s pressure tactics, the move is more likely due to Apple wanting to get ahead of legal disputes with the European Union.

With Apple adopting RCS, you might assume this would be the end of the green vs blue bubble dilemma. Not necessarily. Apple plans on supporting the GSMA’s Universal Profile, but told 9to5Mac it won’t use any proprietary extensions that add end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on top of RCS — like Google’s version of RCS.

Android Authority has contacted Google for comment on Apple’s recent announcement. A spokesperson for Google replied:

Everyone deserves to communicate with each other in ways that are modern and secure, no matter what phone they have. That’s why we have worked closely with the mobile industry to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and we’re happy to see Apple take their first step today by coming on board to embrace RCS. We welcome Apple’s participation in our ongoing work with GSMA to evolve RCS and make messaging more equitable and secure, and look forward to working with them to implement this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone.

Even if the green vs blue bubble situation continues on after this, Apple supporting RCS should still result in some positives for all users. For example, this move should help with encryption, as well as higher file size support between Google Messages and iMessage.