Don’t expect RCS support in iMessage; buy your mom an iPhone instead

During Vox Media’s Code 2022 event, the CEO of Apple answered a question that brought back the topic of the green and blue bubbles and Apple’s refusal to incorporate RCS into iMessage. The person who asked the question wanted to know how, according to Tim Cook, Steve Jobs would feel about using the RCS standard in iMessage.Tim Cook’s answer was that currently, Apple users are not asking Apple to incorporate RCS into iMessage, and for that reason, Apple will not do so, at least at this point. And then Tim Cook just stated that he “would love to convert you to an iPhone” instead.

However, the person then shared that his mother is unable to view the videos he sends her. Through Google’s RCS standard, Android users can share high-quality photos and videos. But without it, the videos you send via iMessage to an Android phone (or vice-versa) get received in really poor condition. So it’s a valid complaint indeed. Nevertheless, Tim Cook’s answer for that one was just, “Buy your mom an iPhone.”

Now, we shouldn’t be surprised by Tim Cook’s answer. After all, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, stated in an email that iMessage on Android would simply enable families in the Apple ecosystem to give their children Android phones. In other words, Apple just wants to keep its users in its ecosystem. So yeah, we guess we will continue with the green and blue bubbles after all.