Apple’s iOS 27, due in September, will let iPhone users reply to individual messages in green-bubble conversations for the first time, closing a gap that has long made cross-platform group chats messy and hard to follow.
The feature works the same way it does within iMessage: press and hold a message, tap Reply, type your response, and the recipient gets a proper threaded reply tied to that specific message rather than a freestanding text floating below everything else.
Reactions are getting the same treatment. React to a photo in an Android conversation and your contact will see the actual emoji you chose, not a text string reading that you “liked an image.”
Why It’s Taken This Long
Both features are built on RCS Universal Profile 3.0, the GSMA messaging standard that Apple helped develop and has been rolling out in stages.
The previous version, Universal Profile 2.4, arrived with iOS 18 in September 2024 and brought RCS support to the iPhone, but inline replies were not part of that spec. Profile 3.0 adds them, and iOS 27 is the first Apple release to include that upgrade.
RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is the protocol that carriers use to deliver a step up from standard SMS, enabling read receipts, typing indicators, higher-quality media, and now threaded replies between iPhones and Android devices.
Apple adopted it partly in response to regulatory pressure in Europe and ongoing criticism over the green bubble experience.
Carrier Support Required
There is a catch on the network side: the feature requires carrier support at both ends of the conversation.
If either party’s carrier hasn’t enabled RCS, threaded replies won’t work regardless of which software version is installed. iPhone users can check their status now without waiting for the update by going to Settings, then Apps, then Messages, then RCS Messaging.
If the toggle is visible and switched on, the device is ready. If the option doesn’t appear at all, the carrier hasn’t activated the feature yet. iOS 27 will run on iPhone 11 and later when it ships next month.
