iOS 27 will add inline replies & photo reactions to Android-iPhone RCS
iOS 27 will introduce the next big update to Android-iPhone messaging with support for inline replies and photo reactions.
With iOS 27 beta 2, RCS conversations with Android users now support inline replies. On the iPhone, long-pressing a chat in the Messages app offers a “Reply” option that supports threading.
On Android, Google Messages will show replies with the original message included above. In the example from Reddit, the screenshot shows the latest Google Messages beta, while the other participant is running iOS 27 beta 2.
Additionally, photo reactions are now accompanied by emoji instead of a text description.
Of course Apple didn't announce anything about this. The small bento box of "RCS" at WWDC 2024 said how much Apple was enthusiastic about a better cross-platform messaging experience. This is a problem that has plagued me and my mixed iOS-Android group chats for years. If you don't know, Google Messages, the default messaging app on Android, has been on the closest version of the Universal Profile standard that provides the best RCS experience. It's taken Apple a long time for them to finally bring these rich cross-platform messaging experiences to iOS let alone RCS itself. This isn't one of those, "Android had it first" memes. Those are tiresome. But it's certainly one of those quality of life features that diminishes the "Buy your mom an iPhone situations. Now that iOS and Android will have End-to-end encryption, photo emoji reactions, and in-line replies, there's one more thing that I hope comes sooner rather than later.
Thanks Rob!