iOS 18.1 upgrades business messaging with RCS support

Apple has a packed iOS 18.1 update coming next week, with Apple Intelligence and a whole lot more. But despite months of beta testing, there’s one new feature we just learned about today: iOS 18.1 upgrades business messaging to include RCS support.

Business Chat is no longer iMessage-only

Years ago, Apple upgraded iMessage with a new feature: Business Chat (now known as Messages for Business).

Where supported, this enabled you to communicate with businesses entirely inside the Messages app.

The appeal of the feature is simple: rather than using the often-buggy chat interfaces on the web, you can chat with businesses inside the safe, reliable hub of Apple’s Messages app.

Previously, the feature was limited to iMessage use. But in iOS 18.1, it’s expanding to support RCS networking as well.

What does this mean? Hopefully that more businesses will get on board as a way to reach iOS users.

Perhaps that’s overly optimistic, but I suspect Apple has heard feedback from users and companies alike that it would be helpful to use Messages for Business without iMessage.

And soon, it will be. But of course, only on carriers currently supporting RCS in iOS 18.

Are you glad that business messaging is coming to RCS? Let us know in the comments.