- You can now edit texts sent from Android to iOS
- The change is part of the updated RCS standard
- Texts sent from iOS to Android however cannot be edited
Sending text messages between an iPhone and an Android device has long been a pretty bad experience, with features such as writing indicators and reading receipts missing for years. It has been changed in recent years thanks to the use of Rich Communication Services (RCS) and it brings another benefit to your cross -platform chatters.
In this case, it’s the ability to edit texts sent from an Android phone to an iPhone (via Android Authority). This feature seems to be rolled out gradually to Android users so it is not available to everyone yet. But if it works for you, all you need to do is long pressing a sent message, tap the pencil icon, make your adjustments and save your message.
Unfortunately, this is not the other way around – that is, texts sent from an iPhone to an Android device cannot be edited. Probably Apple needs to update its message app to add support to this functionality.
You have been able to edit texts sent between iPhones for years, and messages that go from an Android device to another have been edible when using RCS for about twelve months. But even though edible messages are now part of RCS, companies like Apple and Google have to support the feature – why it’s not available in iOS right now.
Slowly adding support
Apple has been reluctant to support RCS for a long time, partly because it previously offered much weaker encryption than Apple’s iMessage platform, which is an end-to-end encrypted. However, the change, which introduced edible texts to RCS, has now also brought out end-to-end encryption, which can help smooth out things with Apple.
The rolling of edible messages has not been completely painless either. While edited messages appear as normal on Android (with a small “edited” timestamp under them), they behave differently in iOS. There, iPhone users see another message prior to a star that doubles the number of texts on their screen.
Both Apple and Google gave their support for cross-platform RCS messages earlier this year, so we hope these bugs and oddities will be stroked over time. Currently, when texting across telephone platforms, the situation is improved, although only in a small way.
