3 min read
Messaging between Android and iOS devices has long been a frustrating experience, but recent advancements in Rich Communication Services (RCS) have begun to bridge the gap.
This enhanced messaging standard improves cross-platform texting by enabling features like high-quality media sharing, read receipts, and typing indicators. Now, after months of gradual updates, Android users can finally “edit a message sent from an Android phone to an iPhone,” although there are some important caveats.
iPhone users have had the ability to edit iMessages sent to other iPhones for years, while Android users gained this feature over a year ago when messaging via RCS.
However, this capability was initially missing in cross-platform chats because, at launch, Google’s implementation was not part of the “official RCS specification.” Since Apple’s messaging system was based on the “official standard at the time (Universal Profile 2.4),” which did not include message editing, cross-platform support was absent.
The landscape shifted earlier this year with the introduction of “Universal Profile 3.0,” a new specification by the GSM Association that incorporates support for both “message editing and end-to-end encryption.”
How does message editing work between Android and iPhone?
Recently, a growing number of users have started to see the feature roll out. After sending an RCS message to an iPhone user, Android users can now long-press their sent message to reveal a “pencil icon.” Selecting this icon loads the original text into the reply box, allowing users to make edits and resend.
This editing function is confirmed to work with iPhones running “the latest stable release of iOS 18.5 and the iOS 26 beta,” in both individual and group chats. The time window to edit messages remains consistent with Android-to-Android and iPhone-to-iPhone edits, limited to “15 minutes.”
Current Limitations and What’s Next
Despite working well on Android, edited messages appear on iPhones “as a new message preceded by an asterisk,” indicating that the iPhone Messages app currently lacks full support for native RCS message editing. Moreover, iPhone users cannot yet edit RCS messages they send to Android users.
For a seamless experience, Apple will need to update its Messages app to properly “handle RCS message editing,” but there is no announced timeline for this. The hope is that full support for editing will arrive alongside the much-anticipated cross-platform “end-to-end encryption feature” that both Apple and Google promised earlier this year.
Availability and testing
At present, the ability to edit RCS messages sent to iPhone users is not widely accessible. Reports are limited, with just a few users on platforms like Reddit and social media confirming the rollout. It appears Google is “A/B testing this with beta users,” meaning a broader release is still pending.
