iPhone 16, iOS 18 Australia: RCS not yet supported by telcos

A much-vaunted new feature of Apple’s iPhone is not yet available in Australia, with major telcos unable to say when they will support it.

A much-vaunted new feature of Apple’s iPhone is not yet available in Australia, with major telcos unable to say when they will support it.

Rich communication services (RCS) launched this week in iOS 18, improving messaging with Android phones with support for group chats, reactions, read receipts, typing indicators and multimedia content.

It came ahead of Friday’s launch of the new iPhone 16 series.

But Australian user forums have been abuzz over the fact RCS appeared to be missing from local iPhones.

RCS previously required telcos to maintain their own message server, though Android devices have more recently used Google’s.

It is unclear what implementation would be required for iPhone support, and as of this week Australia’s three biggest carriers were unable to say when it would be available.

Vodafone was the only telco that appeared to be actively working on RCS support, a spokesperson saying: “Vodafone is currently reviewing the implementation of RCS on iOS 18.

“We will keep our customers updated as we firm up a launch date.”

The iPhone 16 launches on Friday. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A spokesperson for Telstra, which disabled its RCS servers in 2022, said: “RCS messaging is not currently available for iPhones in Australia, and will not be available at launch this Friday on the recently announced iPhone 16 series.

“We continue to work with our device partners to enable technology that will improve the experience for customers on Telstra’s network.

“As support for new features such as RCS messaging are made available in Australia by our partners, Telstra will explore the work needed to enable them for our customers.”

Similarly, an Optus spokesperson said: “At this time RCS will not be available on iPhones connected to the Optus mobile network with iOS 18 installed.

“Be sure to check back on our website for any future updates on RCS on iPhone at Optus.”

If and when RCS is supported by Australian telcos it can be enabled on iPhones under Settings>Apps>Messages>Text Messaging.

Other headline features of iOS 18 include home screen customisation, a redesigned Photos app, emoji and sticker reactions and text formatting in Messages, Apple Intelligence and enhanced Siri coming in iOS 18.1, and phone call transcription and recording coming later.