Apple Isn’t Budging On The RCS Vs. iMessage Debate

At an event on the sidelines of Apple’s recent launch event, Tim Cook was asked what his company thought about Google’s call to adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) standard for messaging — a move that would go a long way in ending the interoperability issues plaguing iMessage. Cook was also asked about his thoughts on Apple’s policy of using colored bubbles to differentiate between Android and iOS users.

In his response, Cook made it amply clear that Apple has no plans to support the RCS format in the foreseeable future (via The Verge). Cook cited a lack of demand for RCS compatibility from a large subset of iMessage users as the primary reason for not “putting a lot of energy” into the initiative. When a journalist complained to Cook about the lack of iMessage’s interoperability leading to a poor video sharing experience with the journalist’s mom, Cook’s suggestion was to simply buy her an iPhone.

Cook’s recent reaction to the iMessage versus RCS debate was the first official response from Apple regarding this matter following Google’s efforts this year. In a move to put pressure on Apple, Google ended up running an entire campaign to coax it into adopting the supposedly open standard. Google claimed that Apple adopting RCS would end the interoperability issues that currently plague iMessage. Google touted RCS as an industry standard that Apple was refusing to adhere to — and also made attempts to differentiate RCS from existing cross-platform messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram — with claims that RCS was not a standalone messaging app like them.