Apple wasn't too excited to do so, but it finally added RCS messages on iOS 18, paving the way for SMS to finally be a thing of the past. Now, one of the remaining compatibility issues is being ironed out.

The Verge sent test messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and different Android phones, confirming both devices now display reactions as intended. It’s unclear when this change happened or whose side — Google or Apple — had to make adjustments to get it working.

It was discovered by the folks at The Verge that reactions are displayed as intended when they were sent between iPhones running iOS 18 .1 and different Android phones. At this point, it's not exactly clear which company made this change happen: either Google or Apple.

Android reactions now show up properly on iPhones, fixing a major messaging headache. Previously, Android reactions would appear as separate messages, cluttering up chats—especially in group texts. The update is part of RCS v2.

Emoji reactions now display correctly between Android and iPhone users. Emoji reactions sent from Android users no longer show up as a separate text. Apple improved cross-platform texting with RCS support in iOS 18.