The State of RCS
RCS Interoperability — Why Messaging Is Still Broken in 2026 Cross‑platform messaging is still broken in 2026 because the companies responsible for fixing it never had the incentive to do so. RCS was supposed to replace SMS, but carriers dragged their feet, Google built its own version, and Apple resisted interoperability to protect iMessage’s lock‑in. Even Apple’s new “RCS support” is intentionally limited — no cross‑platform encryption, no feature parity, and the green bubble stigma remains.