The sad state of RCS

This follows my previous article the confusing state of RCS as the situation by the end of 2025 hasn't really improved.

Apple

Since the initial iOS 18 release, RCS support has only been enabled in a handful of additional countries. There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern or strategy. Many European countries are still left out entirely, even the ones where the iOS market share is relatively high (Norway, Sweden, Switzerland). On a global scale, the rollout moves at a glacial pace.

It's a bit hard to believe Apple is blameless here as we can see the usual big players (Orange, Telefónica, Telekom, Vodafone) weren't able to provide RCS to their iOS subscribers consistently across countries. Of course, multinational telcos aren't monoliths, there can be significant differences between national entities. However, given the technological aspect, I'd expect the rollout to happen in a more consistent fashion once an MNO agrees to Apple and Google's terms, across more countries.

iOS 26 didn't bring any extra feature to the RCS client, stuck on a 6 years old version of the protocol. And beyond some speculation¹, there's currently no evidence this might change soon.

Google

Interestingly enough, more has happened on the Google side.

IMS registration

While Google Messages is able to register directly to Jibe over-the-top, this goes beyond the spec. RCS being an IMS service, it should be provisioned via service entitlement, pretty much like VoLTE or VoWiFi are set up when you add a new SIM card to your phone. This is the sole mechanism used by the iOS client and consequently, MNOs need to support it, even if Jibe is still providing the backend.

In practice, it means your carrier now has control over the (de)registration of your phone number to the global RCS network operated by Google. A few of them have started migrating Android subscribers to this workflow as well. Specifically, T-Mobile and AT&T have communicated² about the move: subscribers need to agree to new terms and conditions for the service, as the MNO is now the legal entity providing the service.

I'm not aware of similar migrations in Europe yet.

Universal Profile 3.0 and 3.1, E2EE

During the first half of the year, the GSMA added E2EE to the spec, among other improvements. As previously predicted, Google³ formalized the usage of the IETF standard MLS, following the company's public interest and communication on the matter since 2023.

While Google doesn't publish release notes for Google Messages, and we never really know the feature set supported by Jibe at any given time, multiple reports show that Google's client switched to a new encryption scheme around July⁴ which points to MLS being ready for a while on that end.

The end of the Guest program?

Ad-hoc access to Jibe in several regions (mostly Africa, but also Asia and Europe) has seemingly been cut off by Google.⁵ This answers one question I had asked last year: what happens when MNOs aren't interested in Google's terms?

It's hard to find concrete evidence or information on this topic, and I'm speculating here, but from what I understand, Google provided P2P messaging for free as an incentive for carriers to consider RCS and agree to a revenue share model for A2P. It seems Google has started to formalize such agreements worldwide and that not all carriers agreed, unsurprisingly.

For fun, I tried asking Gemini 3 about it, in the most neutral way, avoiding leading prompts. I was mainly looking for sources that I couldn't find using conventional search. Google's model seems to agree with my interpretation:

Google Jibe’s core strategy has been a "Trojan Horse" play: Give the carriers the infrastructure for free (or cheap) to secure the P2P network, and then monetize the traffic that flows on top of it (A2P).

This is disappointing, as it essentially fractures RCS, making it useless in many regions after users relied on the service for the past 5-6 years.

Third party client support

Nothing really changed there, Google hasn't shown willingness to loosen its grip on allowed clients. This causes issues to de-Googled Android builds.^{6 7}

For some reason, a few people are still holding onto Samsung Messages, which to my understanding has always been using Google components anyway. No sign of a Chinese RCS client being able to connect to Jibe, let alone FOSS alternatives. Even frontends aren't possible as Android doesn't expose a low-level RCS API.

Non-Jibe RCS networks a.k.a. RCS islands

Besides China operating its own RCS deployment that doesn't interconnect with Google for obvious reasons, there are other isolated networks worldwide. Their existence today is inherently confusing, since Google has killed the idea of interconnection hubs with Jibe.

South Korea

Korean carriers are operating their own domestic RCS deployment, sometimes called TTA-RCS as it was pushed by an entity called the Telecommunications Technology Association and effectively built by Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom, before the two other MNOs joined in.

Samsung maintains a special version of Messages called Galaxy Chatting+ for the Korean market. Since iOS 26, Apple's RCS client is also connecting to this network, after the RCS support was essentially mandated by another government body.⁸

Consequently, the few people running stock Google Messages in Korea, for instance on Google Pixels, weren't able to communicate with Chatting+ users before, and are now completely disconnected from Jibe.

Japan

Since 2018, Japan has had its own RCS deployment called +Message, using proprietary clients. Interestingly, a single carrier, KDDI, has moved to support the native iOS client and encouraged Android users to switch from +Message to Google Messages.⁹ KDDI has even communicated about the move from OTT Jibe to their own IMS service.¹⁰

As far as I know, there hasn't been similar communication from the other MNOs, whether on upcoming iOS support, or discontinuing +Message.

Jio in India

Even weirder, Jio has seemingly enabled RCS for iOS subscribers on a completely isolated RCS deployment. That is, Android users on Jio cannot message iOS users via Google Messages, which connects to the global Jibe network.

Indian residents seem to complain about the amount of spam they get over RCS, which I believe is a pretty unique situation in the world. It looks like Jio wanted to route A2P traffic to iPhone owners as well¹¹, but didn't actually care about P2P interoperability, which frankly sounds insane. Feel free to reach out and correct me if you have a better explanation.

Conclusion

While Google got what it wanted in the North American market, RCS is more than ever a fragmented mess. We can reasonably expect Apple to ship up-to-date versions of the client eventually, supporting modern features and providing a more reliable user experience overall. But I don't see how Google's haphazard strategy will not cement the dominance of WhatsApp and other OTT messaging apps in most regions worldwide.