The sooner Android accepts that RCS is dead, the sooner we can choose the next major messaging platform

Last week the world watched as Apple announced its latest phones. As silly — if no less intriguing — as the Dynamic Island might be, the iPhone 14 series fails to fix one of the biggest problems facing modern smartphones: messaging. A day after Apple’s keynote, Tim Cook took the stage at Vox’s code conference and confirmed the company’s position on RCS: It doesn’t care, and if you want to send high-definition videos to your mom, you better buy them — or yourself itself – an iPhone.

After months of increasingly desperate pleas from Google, it solidifies the state of cross-platform messaging as a disastrous mess in the US. Cook’s comments are an eyesore, not just for Android users, but for any iPhone user who wants to text their friends without worrying about blue and green bubbles. That’s why it’s finally time to urge your iOS-based friends and family members to abandon their blue bubble group chats and switch to a third-party chat platform.

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Let me say one thing upfront: this issue is absolutely a US-centric issue. I’m fully aware that iMessage has practically no meaning in the rest of the world. It’s a problem that arose well over a decade ago when US carriers added SMS for free while other countries continued to charge extra, setting the stage for services like WhatsApp to rise in popularity while in the US tiny player remained. Unfortunately I live in the US so this fight is all I know. It’s time for these US-based readers – Android and iPhone users alike – to band together and follow the rest of the world. If convincing Apple to take over RCS doesn’t work, you’ll have to convince your friends to download a new app.

Don’t get me wrong – this is going to be an uphill battle. iPhones are immensely popular in the US, and this user base is growing all the time. iMessage isn’t just a key lock-in feature — it’s also a way of getting people off Android. Tim Cook said it himself on stage this week: if you’re sick of receiving or sending low-resolution videos, if you’re sick of interrupting group chats, if you’re sick of being dubbed the “green bubble.” to become, Apple’s solution is for you to buy an iPhone.

and i hear you You’ve been through this before. You tried it in 2012 when you convinced your family to use Hangouts. You tried again in 2016 and convinced some of your friends to download Allo from the App Store. They both called the future of messaging. And in both cases you were wrong.

Now that Google seems to be sticking with a messaging service — and a decent one at that — it’s disappointing to throw in the towel. RCS isn’t perfect, but it gets that close to the “iMessage for Android” that people have been begging for for years. It works with your phone number, it supports almost every Android device and it’s practically automatic. But outside of the US, nobody really cares about RCS. And to even play a role in the US, RCS needs to be acquired by Apple. Otherwise, we’re stuck with the same issues we’ve grappled with for a decade: broken group chats and a lack of modern messaging capabilities. Without some kind of vigorous action — be it from government or carriers — Apple won’t be adding RCS support to iMessage any time soon.

So it’s time to give up the dream and give your friends and family one final nudge to switch to a cross-platform chat service. Luckily, countless messaging apps are widely available in both app stores. If you don’t mind using meta products, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram are for you. Your mom is probably on Facebook anyway, so it won’t take much effort to get her to text you on Messenger. Don’t want to give Meta access to your life? Sign up for Signal. I’ve been using it for a few of my group chats over the past few months and it’s great. It’s simple enough that anyone can learn how to use it, even those who haven’t used anything but iMessage since the days of sliding QWERTY keyboards. Get your friends to jump on Discord or Telegram. All of these platforms are accessible on iOS and Android and can also be synced with web-based or desktop clients. Crucially, they’re established – unlike Hangouts and Allo, they’re not going anywhere.

It’s hard work. It’s annoying. Basically, you need to harass and persuade the people closest to you in your life, all in an effort to solve a problem over which we have little to no control. But that’s about it – we can make these changes in our social circles by asking our friends and family to download one last messaging app. And the timing is perfect. More than ever, iPhone users seem to be more aware of the issues when messaging Android users and may be willing to change their habits to avoid future headaches. If Google’s ongoing campaign has an edge, it’s here.

So, one last time. Apologize to your loved ones for making them try Allo all those years ago — honestly, they deserve that apology (Allology?) — and promise them this will be your last appeal. No future apps, no Google announcements. Switch to WhatsApp, Signal or any application of your choice and leave the conversation in the green bubble in the past. We’ll all be better off.