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Google reports that over a billion RCS messages are now sent daily in the United States
Photo by Samuel Angor / Unsplash

Google reports that over a billion RCS messages are now sent daily in the United States

But hitting a billion messages a day is a loud signal that the old, broken system of SMS is finally on its way out.

Emmanuel Oyedeji profile image
by Emmanuel Oyedeji

Not too long ago, texting across phones felt like crossing a language barrier. If you were on iPhone and your friends have an Android, you knew the drill—green bubble, blurry media videos, broken group threads, and that one person who kept reacting to your messages with “Emma loved ‘See you soon!’” instead of a love emoji. It was messy.

It wasn’t just a technical gap; it became this weird cultural thing, especially in the U.S., where having an iPhone meant you were “in,” and Android users got side-eyed for ruining the group chat. For years, Google pushed Rich Communication Services (RCS), which was the default on Android phones as the fix. Better than SMS, but it only really worked well on Android. Apple, predictably, dragged its feet.

Then, finally, in late 2024, Apple gave in. With iOS 18, they added RCS to the iPhone. And just like that, messaging between platforms actually started to feel normal. You could send high-res photos, see when someone was typing, react to messages without chaos, and manage group chats like a grown-up. But Apple kept the green bubbles. Still holding onto that iMessage status symbol, especially since it's such a big deal among teens in the U.S.

Apple finally adds RCS support in latest iOS 18 beta; green bubbles persist
This is a huge step towards a more unified messaging experience between Android and iOS.

Now we’re seeing just how big this shift really is. Google says over one billion RCS messages are being sent every day in the U.S. The stat covers 28 days and shows that RCS, the long-promised replacement for SMS, is finally hitting its stride.

Android users were already using RCS before this. Google’s Messages app, where most RCS happens, hit a billion monthly active users back in 2023. But with Apple on board, things exploded. Cross-platform messaging doesn’t suck anymore. Group chats don’t fall apart when someone without an iPhone joins. You can send a video and trust it’ll actually look like a video. It’s what texting should’ve been a long time ago.

That said, RCS isn’t dominating messaging just yet. Americans send more than 6 billion messages a day, on average, according to a 2021 report by Intradyn, so RCS is still just one part of the mix. Although some U.S. carriers have been slow to support RCS on iPhone. Google also didn't release detailed numbers like how many RCS messages were sent across the Android and Apple ecosystems.

But crossing the one-billion-a-day mark shows that Android and iPhone users are finally speaking the same language, even if the bubbles are still different colours.

Emmanuel Oyedeji profile image
by Emmanuel Oyedeji

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