The inclusion of RCS messaging on the iPhone in iOS 18 earlier this year greatly improved texting to Android phones. Unfortunately, RCS messaging on the iPhone is only available when the carrier actually supports it.

At launch, only a handful of major carriers supported the standard, but that list has grown in recent months.

So how do you know if your carrier supports RCS on your iPhone? Apple is aware of all of this and recently updated its support page to list the U.S. carriers and MVNOs that allow RCS in iOS 18. They include:

As Android Authority points out, this list is not complete; Boost Mobile added RCS support with the release of iOS 18.2, but it is not on Apple's support page. Also missing are several carriers, including US Mobile and Google Fi, the latter of which claims that only Apple can enable RCS for its customers.

The advantage of RCS is that messaging is done over the Internet rather than over traditional cellular airwaves, allowing a smarter range of features. For starters, the sharing of images and videos will not be subject to the same obscene levels of compression, meaning a significant improvement in quality on the other end. It also provides read receipts, typing indicators, reactions, and everything else that is usually missing when not using iMessage or other third-party messaging services.

One thing not included is end-to-end encryption. While Apple promises the advent of encryption, RCS messaging between iPhone and Android is still not as secure as SMS.

If you plan on sending messages to your Android phone, that is something you need to keep in mind. Instead, try an encrypted messaging app.