RCS on iPhone expands to more carriers and regions with iOS 18 beta 4

According to 9to5Mac, iOS 18 beta 4 enables RCS for the following carriers: Fido Canada, Orange Spain, Orange UK, Rogers Canada, T-Mobile UK, Vodafone Spain, and Yoigo Spain. Based on comments from this Reddit thread, it appears that this beta also enables RCS for EE, Xfinity Mobile, and Visible. Do note, though, that the service hasn’t been working consistently (if at all) for some users, as the feature is still under development.

RCS first became available to iOS 18 beta 2 users subscribed to T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T in the US. Beta 3 then brought support to Videotron, Telus Mobility, Bell, Telefonica, SFR, and O2 customers in Canada, France, Germany, and Spain. So, ineligible users can expect more carriers to adopt RCS support in beta 5 and subsequent builds. If RCS is available on your iPhone, a dedicated toggle will appear in the Messages section of the Settings app.

While RCS support on iPhone may entice certain users to ditch WhatsApp, Apple’s implementation may slow down this shift. After all, even when iOS 18 launches to the public, the protocol won’t be available to all users due to unsupported carriers. So, the communication gap will persist for a while, but it won’t be as apparent.