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RCS Upgrades in iOS 27
iOS 27 brings two of the most requested RCS upgrades to Apple's Messages app: true inline replies and proper Tapback reactions.
For anyone in a group chat with a mix of iPhone and Android users, these additions solve some of the most persistent green-bubble annoyances. But while cross-platform texting is undeniably getting better, the gap with iMessage isn't completely closed.
Here is what is new for RCS in iOS 27, along with the key features still left off the table.
Native Tapbacks and Inline Replies
The most immediate fix in iOS 27 is native Tapback support over RCS. Reacting to a photo or text from an Android user with a heart or thumbs-up used to trigger a clunky automated text string such as "Liked an image".
Under the RCS active in iOS 27, emoji reactions finally attach directly to the specific message bubble across both systems.
Threaded inline replies for group chats
Inline replies make cross-platform group chats far less chaotic. Long-pressing a specific text or photo inside an RCS chat lets you respond directly to it, attaching a tiny preview of the original message right above your response.
It makes it obvious to everyone in the chat exactly what you are responding to without forcing people to scroll back through a flood of new texts.
Remaining Limitations
Even with these additions, core conveniences are still missing. While you can easily unsend or edit an iMessage sent to another Apple user, the cross-platform RCS implementation remains clunky.
Android users can now edit texts sent to iPhones, but the updates often arrive as messy secondary messages rather than clean edits, and Apple users face tight restrictions when editing back. More crucially, a cross-platform unsend function is entirely non-existent.
And for iPad users, cross-device syncing to Android contacts remains a hit-or-miss experience — because the tablet relies on phone-forwarding workarounds for RCS, it is far less seamless than on iPhone.
