Group chats must be easy: add everybody to a thread, and so they can speak to one another. However that is not often the case in actuality—particularly when your group comprises a mixture of iPhone and Android customers.
I just lately had a foul group chat expertise that didn’t have an apparent trigger at first. You need to find out about this, as a result of your group chats may additionally be struggling for no good motive.
My group chat woes
Is anybody getting this?
I’ve a bunch chat with ~10 buddies I play video video games with frequently. We’re a mixed-device group; as messaging apps like WhatsApp aren’t as frequent within the US, we unsurprisingly use a regular group chat within the default messages app. Regardless of the shortage of contemporary options, that is normally positive.
Nonetheless, we just lately had a problem the place message supply was everywhere. Some folks wouldn’t get messages in any respect, or they’d see messages from sure people however not others. Messages would arrive out of order, or many hours after they have been despatched. Typically, a member’s telephone would present texts as despatched to them individually, as an alternative of within the group.
Since we use the group to ask who needs to play in a short time, it’s a ache while you don’t know if anybody is even seeing your message. Whereas I couldn’t troubleshoot this straight, a small little bit of textual content on the dialog display screen alerted me to what was happening. And this requires dialogue of messaging protocols to grasp.
The issues with mixed-device group chats
Fewer options for these teams
When everybody in a bunch chat is utilizing an iPhone, it really works easily. It’s because the chat makes use of iMessage, Apple’s internet-based messaging service. Indicated by blue bubbles, this consists of fashionable messaging options like learn receipts, typing indicators, sending with results, and extra. There are additionally iMessage tricks exclusive to the service.
Nonetheless, when at the very least one particular person in a bunch chat makes use of Android, this will get murkier. That’s as a result of for non-Apple group chats, there at the moment are two messaging protocols: RCS and MMS.
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) is an extension of SMS (Brief Message Service). SMS is the fundamental protocol for 160-character texts that’s been round since 1993, and continues to be in use right now. However as a result of it’s restricted to one-on-one messaging, the expanded performance of MMS is used for group chats.
MMS is extra sturdy than SMS—it means that you can ship media and longer texts—nevertheless it’s nonetheless outdated for right now’s utilization. It doesn’t help fashionable performance, and has irritating limitations like not letting you add or take away folks from a chat (you must begin a brand new one).
RCS isn’t as simple appropriately
RCS (Wealthy Communication Providers) is a more moderen customary, designed to improve SMS and MMS, that’s been slowly rolling out because the late 2010s. It was created to be an open protocol, fairly than a proprietary messenger like iMessage or WhatsApp.
It provides modern messaging features like supply receipts and tremendously will increase the cap on media sizes, which means movies despatched over RCS don’t seem like rubbish as they do on MMS. Whereas RCS was Android-only for some time, a notable Google marketing campaign pressured Apple so as to add help to iPhone. RCS was lastly added to iPhone with iOS 18’s launch in September 2024.
All this historical past is why group chats are extra difficult than they seem. Including to the confusion, your messaging app and provider should each help RCS on your telephone to make use of it.
Fortunately, most US carriers (together with AT&T, Verizon, T-Cell, Mint Cell, Seen, Increase Cell, UScellular, and Google Fi) help it (Wikipedia’s RCS page has extra particulars). It took some time for sure carriers—I have Mint Mobile and wasn’t in a position to make use of RCS till iOS 18.4 launched in March 2025.
Why I Still Haven’t Used RCS Messaging on My iPhone (and What Would Change My Mind)
It must prepare dinner.
On iPhone, Apple’s Messages is the one messaging app, so help isn’t a problem there. For Android, Google Messages is the one true possibility for RCS messaging. Samsung Messages additionally helps RCS, nevertheless it’s being phased out in favor of Google’s software.
Getting everybody on RCS is a ache
Most individuals don’t need to swap
As you would possibly anticipate, my problematic group chat was utilizing MMS, not RCS. Hoping to repair the problem, I got down to verify who wasn’t utilizing RCS. Since I’ve an iPhone, this concerned additional steps.
For the Android customers within the group, it was simple to verify if they’ve RCS enabled. Once you enter somebody’s title within the To area, you’ll see Textual content Message • RCS in the event that they’re utilizing the newer protocol, or Textual content Message • SMS if not. Nonetheless, iPhone customers will present iMessage, leaving you in the dead of night about their RCS standing.
There have been two methods to verify this; I selected to message my Android-using pal individually. Through the use of the identical methodology, he may see that three members of the group (two on Android and one on iPhone) didn’t have RCS enabled. One other method would have been to briefly flip off iMessage and verify once more on my telephone.
From there, it was a matter of reaching out to these folks individually and asking them to allow RCS. Even this isn’t easy, although. Due to all of the layers, every particular person has to be sure that their provider helps RCS, they’re utilizing an app that permits it, they’ve up to date their OS, and have the choice enabled.
It’s a lot simpler to modify to a greater messaging app
A devoted software does the job higher
It shouldn’t take this many steps to get a messaging software working correctly. Whereas RCS sounds simple, the a number of boundaries to somebody utilizing it—with out even realizing—can downgrade group chats for everybody. If a single particular person isn’t utilizing RCS, the whole chat downgrades to MMS.
And for all this bother, RCS isn’t excellent. Its most notable flaw is inconsistent end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which protects your messages from being learn by anybody apart from the meant recipient. E2EE is at the moment not supported for RCS chats that contain an iPhone, and encryption can even rely in your provider.
Because of this and others, it’s a good suggestion to maneuver your group chats to a superior messaging app, if doable. I recommend Signal, which has rock-solid encryption trusted by safety specialists and isn’t tied to Meta. In any other case, WhatsApp is E2EE, and a wildly widespread possibility outdoors the US. Telegram has nice options, however chats aren’t E2EE by default.
Except for encryption, fashionable messaging apps embody different helpful options like “view as soon as” media, fast location sharing, polls, and straightforward video calls. RCS and SMS/MMS are nice for comfort or fallbacks since they work with the default apps everybody has, however they aren’t worthwhile properties for frequent group chats.
You deserve higher messaging
Even in the event you don’t have the identical message supply drawback we did, MMS group chats are horrible. Take a second to verify yours right now and ensure your group chats aren’t affected by a preventable trigger. Whether or not you get everybody to allow RCS or swap to a devoted app, you’ll respect the improve.
I perceive it’s tough to get many individuals to modify what they’re used to, nevertheless it’s price it. We nonetheless haven’t gotten everybody within the group onto RCS, however fortunately, messages have been coming by means of usually.
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