Here’s a method to make sure the person you’re messaging will see your new Text Effects or emoji reactions.
It relies on RCS support, so it won’t work if they have iOS 18 but turned off RCS or their carrier doesn’t support it.
1. Start a new message in iMessage with an Android user. Make sure it says RCS in the message box. If it says SMS try another Android user until you find one that says RCS.
2. Add the iPhone user to make it a group chat. If the names turn Red or the message box says SMS they probably have not upgraded, but see caveats about RCS support above.
3. If the names turn Green and it says RCS in the message box then they have iOS 18.
Sometimes only the Android user turns Red and the iOS user stays Blue. Not sure what that means, but the message box always says SMS in that case.
(Note: I tested this on iOS 18.1, so it’s possible some behavior may be slightly different on 18.0.x)
It relies on RCS support, so it won’t work if they have iOS 18 but turned off RCS or their carrier doesn’t support it.
1. Start a new message in iMessage with an Android user. Make sure it says RCS in the message box. If it says SMS try another Android user until you find one that says RCS.
2. Add the iPhone user to make it a group chat. If the names turn Red or the message box says SMS they probably have not upgraded, but see caveats about RCS support above.
3. If the names turn Green and it says RCS in the message box then they have iOS 18.
Sometimes only the Android user turns Red and the iOS user stays Blue. Not sure what that means, but the message box always says SMS in that case.
(Note: I tested this on iOS 18.1, so it’s possible some behavior may be slightly different on 18.0.x)