Mobile Operator Three UK Introduce RCS Support for iOS with v18.2

Mobile network operator Three UK has this week begun issuing text messages to customers on Apple’s iPhone devices, which confirms that they will officially introduce support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) with the release of the next iOS 18.2 update – due on 9th December 2024.

The feature, which is also known as Enhanced Chat, is an open protocol or standard (like SMS or MMS) that uses your data (mobile broadband) connection and enables a set of enhanced features on messaging apps that implement it. The service is often touted as being the next generation of SMS (text messaging), but so far Three UK has only officially supported it via Android phones and devices.

However, some of Three UK’s customers have previously reported that they’ve been able to access RCS on Apple’s iPhone’s too, albeit usually only after installing a beta release of the next iOS 18.2 update. Suffice to say that it seemed likely the final stable release of v18.2 would officially introduce this feature for Three UK’s customers, and the operator has now confirmed it. Credits to Bubbles121 on our forum (here) and Mark for the tip.

The expectation is that this will also filter down to Three UK’s various MVNO (virtual operator) partners, but it’s unclear if this will be going live on the same day or may take a bit longer. Otherwise, the feature will be enabled by default in iOS 18.2, but you can toggle it off in the settings (Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging).

RCS improves messaging with the following key features:

Multimedia sharing: effortlessly share images, videos, and audio messages

Group chats: have conversations with multiple people at the same time

Read receipts: know when your messages have been read

Typing indicators: see when someone is responding

Enhanced security: get better message security with encryption

No character limits: send longer messages without restrictions