Google Messages Lets Users Edit RCS Messages to iPhone

Until Apple updates its text software, iPhone users will not be able to edit texts sent to Android handsets.

The features like typing indicators and read receipts have been absent for years, making text messaging between an iPhone and an Android device a generally bad experience. The usage of Rich Communication Services (RCS) has changed that in recent years, and it’s giving your cross-platform chats and discussions an additional advantage.

Instances such as it refers to the ability of editing messages transmitted according to Android Authority from an Android phone to an iPhone in which everyone does not has access in terms of the function yet, since it seems to be coming out gradually to Android users. If it works for you, however, all you need to do is long-press a message that has been delivered, then hit the pencil icon, edit it, and save it.

Sadly, this does not work the other way around; that is, you cannot modify texts received from an iPhone to an Android device. Apple’s Messages app will probably need to be updated in order to support this feature.

Text messages received between iPhones have been editable for years, and RCS has been able to edit messages sent between Android devices for around a year. Although RCS now includes editable messages, businesses like Apple and Google must enable the capability, which is why iOS does not yet support it.

And now the ability to edit RCS chats transmitted from an Android smartphone to an iPhone is apparently being tested by Google Messages. Editing cross-platform talks looks to be on the horizon, but iPhone users could previously edit iMessage chats and Google Messages allowed Android-to-Android discussions to be edited. However, RCS messages sent to Android users cannot be edited by iPhone users, and Apple may need to take action to enable this feature. Another feature anticipated in the future is cross-platform messaging encryption.

According to an Android Authority report, Google Messages is now allowing select users to edit RCS messages sent to iPhone users, a year after the firm introduced support for message editing in Android-to-Android chats. However, using Google Messages to edit cross-platform RCS communications has a few significant drawbacks.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) and message editing, two capabilities that have been supported on third-party messaging apps for years, were ultimately added by the Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which was introduced in March. According to the magazine, some Google text users may now access the latter, which appears to be functional for texts sent from an Android phone to various iPhone models running iOS 18.5 and iOS 26 development beta.

Even though it looks like Google has introduced support for the most recent RCS specification, modified messages do not show up correctly on an iPhone. Users will view the updated message with an asterisk after the original message, rather than the new and corrected message on the iOS Messages app.

Users seem to be gradually gaining access to the new feature that allows them to edit texts sent from an Android phone to an iPhone. This could be because a server-side switch is being used to enable it, which could imply users will have to wait until the capability is ready.

Users could be expecting the same 15-minute message editing window that is accessible on iMessage and Google Messages with RCS when it is enabled on both platforms. Apple has not yet said when the Messages app would enable E2EE and message editing, two features included in the Universal Profile 3.0 specification for enhanced cross-platform RCS communications.

Apple has always been refusing to promote RCS, in part because its encryption was far less robust than that of Apple’s end-to-end encrypted iMessage technology. But in addition to adding editable text to RCS, the update also introduced end-to-end encryption, which could make things easier with Apple.

Additionally, the introduction of editable messages hasn’t been without its challenges. Edited messages act differently in iOS than they do on Android, where they display as usual with a tiny “Edited” timestamp beneath them. There, the number of texts on the iPhone user’s screen doubles, with a second message accompanied by an asterisk.

It’s optimistic that these issues and peculiarities will be resolved eventually, as both Apple and Google announced earlier this year that they would allow cross-platform RCS communications. However, for the time being, even if only little, the situation regarding messaging across phone platforms has improved.