Apple has taken yet another step in busting down barriers between green and blue bubbles. As spotted by The Verge this week, reactions (called Tapbacks on iOS) sent by Android devices to iPhones now appear on top of the message as intended.
As The Verge notes, an Android user reacting to a message sent from an iOS device previously resulted in a separate message on a new line with the emoji used and the content of the original message. This led to cluttered conversations and was one common reason to avoid group texts with Android and iOS users. After all these years, it’s no longer an issue.
The Verge found out by happenstance, as neither Apple nor Google have announced anything. To test the change, the publication sent a series of text messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and multiple Android phones. In either direction, the emoji reactions showed up as they should—in line with the original message.
Apple began supporting Google’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard in iOS 18, but the interoperability between Android and iOS was still inferior. For instance, an RCS message is still unencrypted, and green bubbles aren’t going anywhere.
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That said, The Verge’s discovery goes to show that Apple and Google aren’t done improving the synergy between iPhones and Android devices. Apple most likely would have preferred to never support the standard at all, but now the EU and China have forced its hand, there’s not much to gain in impeding communication between devices.
