One for all

11 December 2025

With examples ranging from WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and iMessage to the occasional SMS, the channels we use to communicate with family, friends or colleagues have proliferated over the years. But what if you really could reach everyone via a single channel – whether you were intending to send a text, a GIF or a voice message? Well, thanks to RCS, you can. We address the most important questions about this communication standard, which many people are completely unaware of, even though it is no longer all that new.

RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. As the name suggests, the standard offers a richer range of communication options than good old SMS. Just like the now familiar messenger apps we have all grown accustomed to, you can use RCS to exchange text and voice messages, images, GIFs and videos and to disclose your location, even in group chats. Unless the recipient has deactivated this function, you can also see whether a message has arrived and been read. But unlike WhatsApp and the like, all this works via the existing Messages app which comes pre-installed on your smartphone, thereby rendering obsolete all that tiresome juggling with different messenger apps to reach everyone you need to contact to plan a class reunion, for example.

Since 2008, this multimedia successor to SMS has been in the hands of the developers at the GSM Association, the international association of mobile phone providers. To start with, the communication standard was used only on Android smartphones. But since autumn 2024, RCS has also been supported for use with iPhones. With this change, the tech giant seems to have reacted to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which calls for the interoperability of large messaging services, a feature not offered by Apple’s iMessage.

A special feature of RCS is that messages can also be scheduled. This may be less relevant when it comes to talking to friends and family but does have its uses for professional purposes. For instance, one could arrange for a piece of bad news that would rob staff members of their sleep to be sent the following morning instead.

Whereas classic text messages are sent via mobile networks, RCS is based on IP technology: as with other messenger services, messages are sent and received via the phone’s Internet connection – be it using WiFi or mobile data transmission. Unlike SMS, there is no charge for this except for the data volume that is chargeable when sending a message via the mobile Internet. This eliminates the potential risk of incurring mobile roaming charges when travelling abroad.

RCS is usually preset on Android smartphones, but on an iPhone, you may have to turn it on first: To do this, you simply have to toggle the “RCS” switch in the “Settings” of your “Messages” app. In the settings of your smartphone – whether Android or iPhone – you can also specify whether your interlocutors should receive a read receipt or just be able to see that you are currently writing a message.

This communication standard can currently be used in the networks of all major mobile phone providers in Germany, with Apple users included from iOS version 18. Exceptions currently apply only to some prepaid tariffs and in respect of a restriction imposed by 1&1, where RCS only works from iOS version 26.2 onwards. According to Vodafone, 61 million of the 69 million mobile phones in Germany are already RCS-capable. The Messages app automatically detects whether the smartphone of the person you are talking to can handle RCS and will tell you so in the input window: There you can see whether you are currently sending an RCS, a text message, or – for iPhone users – an iMessage.

Messages between Android users are already end-to-end encrypted, as is recognisable from the small key symbol above the message. This is not yet the case with exchanges between Android phones and iPhones: in other words, the providers could theoretically read your messages, as is the case with texts and most e-mails. But the GSM Association has already made improvements and developed cross-platform end-to-end encryption, which Apple is now looking to implement in future software updates. So it shouldn’t be too long before you will be able to communicate with everyone via RCS, secure in the knowledge that your message will be strictly confidential. Then all that will remain will be to convince your family and friends that WhatsApp and the rest are superfluous and that it will in the future be easy to plan and follow up on get-togethers using RCS.