A New iOS 27 Update Will Even Make Your Android Device Better

Apple started testing the iOS 27 software release in early June, immediately after unveiling the next iPhone operating system at WWDC 2026. The first iOS 27 developer beta was made available for download right after the keynote. While the revamped Siri experience and the new Apple Intelligence features may be the signature features of iOS 27, the operating system has other features that iPhone users may like. This includes a new RCS messaging feature that Android users who chat with iPhone owners may appreciate. The new feature was released in the iOS 27 beta 2 that Apple made available to developers in late June. It improves cross-platform communication between iPhones and Android devices, allowing users to reply to a specific message in the chat – just like how the feature works in other instant messaging applications, including iMessage.

The inline reply support could make conversations clearer for both parties, helping reduce the risk that replies get lost or misinterpreted. It may be especially useful when discussing sensitive topics where clarity matters, or in group chats. All you have to do to reply to a specific text message is long press on it, just like you would do in an iMessage conversation, and select the Reply option in the menu that appears. You can also swipe right on a message for quick access.

In addition to allowing iPhone users to reply to a single line in the chat, iOS 27 also shows emoji reactions in a way similar to iMessage. Emoji suggestions appear at the top of a reply, according to images MacRumors shared. But the change is that the reactions now display properly for Android users in the chat, instead of showing a text descriptor for the emoji action like "User X liked a message." iOS 27 beta testers have also confirmed the emoji reactions should be displayed correctly on Android.

New in iOS 27: If you react to an image sent via RCS, it will now properly display on the Android user's end instead of saying "Aaron loved an image"

— Aaron (@aaronp613) June 22, 2026

That said, iPhone users can't access the new RCS features in iOS 27 unless they download the developer beta, available now, or the public beta release that is expected to roll out later. These beta versions are known to be unstable, so we don't recommend installing them. Most users will have to wait until September to use the new RCS features in iOS 27. Apple usually launches new iOS versions in mid-September, around the time the new iPhone lineup launches. While the feature is there, carriers also have to support RCS messaging for iPhone users to be able to use it, and users need to turn on RCS Messaging in the Settings app.

Android users do not have to do anything to take advantage of the improved RCS texting experience with iPhone owners. The inline replies and emoji reactions should appear in chats as soon as the iPhone user has updated their device to iOS 27 beta 2 or later. Android users won't have to worry about separate app updates.

RCS text bubbles remain green in iOS 27, the same color associated with standard text messages supported in the iPhone's Messages app. That allows iPhone users to differentiate between Apple's proprietary iMessage platform and the other text messages supported in the app. But the blue vs. green bubble wars seem to be a thing of the past, considering that RCS has been available for richer iPhone-to-Android chat experiences for the past three years. Apple added RCS support to iOS 18 in 2024, improving the feature along the way. These improvements also made texting better for Android users who routinely message iPhone users, something Google long championed for.

The support in iOS 27 beta 2 for threaded replies and the improved emoji reactions to text and multimedia content shared in chats are useful additions to the iPhone-to-Android RCS chat system. But the biggest upgrade arrived in mid-May this year, when Apple announced support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging in iOS 26.5. iMessage chats have been end-to-end encrypted since Apple launched the platform. Separately, Google started adding encryption to RCS years ago. However, cross-platform RCS texting lacked support for encryption until this year. Encrypted messaging adds improved privacy and security to texting, and it's a feature users may want from any instant messaging app, whether it's the default Messages app on iPhone, Meta's WhatsApp, or other alternatives.