Americans are embracing WhatsApp, but that’s before RCS debuts on iPhones

Yesterday, WhatsApp announced on its blog that it now has 100 million users in the US. This equates to more than a quarter of mobile subscribers in the country. The company stated:

This milestone has been a long time coming and it proves that WhatsApp is the solution to the cross platform divide in America. No matter if you have an iPhone or Android, people want private and secure messaging that works well for everyone and that’s what we do best.

Americans have long resisted adopting WhatsApp as their default means of communication. While the service is evidently expanding its reach in the US, it may not become the leading messaging platform there anytime soon. Many US users have ditched SMS solely because of its known limitations. So, with RCS rolling out to iPhones in a couple of months, users who prefer first-party messaging apps may ditch Meta’s service.

RCS arguably addresses SMS’ most significant shortcomings, as it supports high-quality media sharing, typing indicators, message reactions, read receipts, and more. Nonetheless, its implementation on iOS 18 doesn’t completely invalidate WhatsApp. Unlike Meta’s app, RCS on iPhone only works with compatible carriers, and messages aren’t end-to-end encrypted.

Since the largest US carriers have already adopted RCS support, many Americans who don’t care about encryption may ditch WhatsApp when iOS 18 rolls out to the public. However, WhatsApp will continue to serve US users who communicate with foreigners using carriers that don’t support RCS. Ultimately, there’s no denying that RCS on iPhones will disadvantage WhatsApp, and Meta may have to find new ways to entice American users.