Apple expands RCS support on iPhone to more carriers, Google Fi still waiting

Ben Schoon | Dec 23 2024 - 7:30 am PT

Apple finally brought RCS support to the iPhone this year, but the company has to manually approve each carrier that supports it. In the latest iOS update, Apple is expanding RCS support to more carriers, but iPhone users on Google Fi are still left waiting.

RCS on the iPhone drastically improves the experience of messaging between iPhone and Android, bringing better groups chats, improved media quality, typing indicators, and more. And while it’s great that Apple has opened the door to RCS on the iPhone, the company has been a little slow to add expanded carrier support.

As first reported by our sister site 9to5Mac, the latest iOS updates expand RCS support on iPhone to more new carriers. The full list now includes smaller carriers such as Boost Mobile and Visible. Carriers in the US that currently support RCS on iPhone include:

AT&T
Boost Mobile (requires iOS 18.2)
C Spire
Consumer Cellular
Cricket
FirstNet
H20 Wireless
Metro by T-Mobile
PureTalk
Red Pocket
Spectrum Mobile
T-Mobile
TracFone / Straight Talk
US Cellular
Verizon
Visible
Xfinity Mobile

There are still notable omissions though, such as Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile, which are popular low-cost carriers in the US.

Beyond that, Google Fi is also still missing from this list.

As we reported back in September, Google is waiting on Apple to allow RCS support for Fi customers, as “only Apple has the ability to enable RCS interoperability for iPhone users on Fi.” What’s especially interesting, and a bit worrying, is that the Apple page which mentions RCS support on each carrier completely omits Google Fi, not even mentioning support for other features such as 5G, Wi-Fi Calling, and more, which doesn’t exactly instill hope that Fi will pick up RCS support on iPhone anytime soon.