Having an issue where you can’t add RCS to group chats? There’s likely a very specific reason. With iOS 18 being the first iPhone update to finally bridge the messaging gap between Apple and Android users, many are likely champing at the bit to have all their messages sent and delivered with RCS. As exciting as this is, there are currently a couple of things you need to know as this feature rolls out to everyone.
How to Add RCS to Group Chats
When it comes to RCS and group chats, the setup can be rather complicated. With iOS 18 currently rolling out to users, every iPhone user needs to be running iOS 18 and have RCS enabled and supported. This means their carrier needs to support RCS as well. According to folks on Reddit, each user will also need to respond to the group chat to enable RCS support in it fully.
This means:
- Every iPhone user must be running iOS 18. Learn more about installing it here.
- Every single user in the group chat must have RCS support.
- All users need a carrier that supports RCS (Verizon, AT&T, etc.).
- Each user should reply to the group chat once they have made the upgrade to RCS.
With this in mind, I can show you how to enable RCS on an iPhone running iOS 18.
Please note that at the time of this writing, it may be a slow rollout for all iPhone users to have iOS 18. Folks may want to wait a bit before expecting RCS to work with all group chats.
How To Enable RCS on iPhone with iOS 18
So long as every iPhone user is running iOS 18, setting up RCS is rather easy.
Time needed: 1 minute
To enable RCS, follow these steps:
- First, navigate to Settings.
- Scroll all the way down and select Apps.
- Tap Messages.
- Tap RCS Messaging and ensure it is enabled on the next screen.
That’s all there is to it. Android users will have to check their Settings to ensure RCS is enabled as well. You may also want to learn how to fix issues with missing or moving Photo Albums in iOS 18.