The Android website has added a new page about Google Messages that talks about the first-party messaging experience, while also revealing that RCS Messages on iPhone is coming in fall 2024.
RCS Messages on iPhone Coming Fall 2024!
A section describing the benefits of RCS – high-resolution photos/videos, typing indicators, and a better group chat experience – says “Coming soon to iOS.”
When Apple made the RCS announcement in November 2023, it provided a timeline of “late next year.” Most people assumed this meant iOS 18 rather than iOS 17. Google's mention today more or less confirms that. However, it is unclear whether it will arrive with the initial release of 18.0 or with an extra update in the last few months of 2024.
In this section, Google also states that animated emoji reactions are coming “coming soon with RCS.” The current approach is managed by Google's messaging client, while iOS has something similar. This may suggest that reactions will be part of the RCS specification in the future.
This is actually the second Google Messages product page, the original being messages.google.com. (This site has not been updated to reflect the removal of Google Photos integration).
Meanwhile, Google identifies screen effects and custom bubbles as “currently in beta”.
Meanwhile in other areas, Google highlights Photomoji, spam blocking, end-to-end encryption, Magic Compose, the Wear OS application, the tablet experience, warnings/reminders and voice transcription.