Apple’s Messages app in iOS 27 now handles two features that will help Android RCS chats – one that iMessage users have taken for granted for years: inline replies and proper Tapback reactions.
The changes, reflected in Apple’s iOS 27 user guide, mean an iPhone user can long-press a message in an RCS thread and reply to that specific bubble. The reply shows inline for everyone in the conversation, whether they are on iPhone or Android, instead of landing as an unanchored message that only makes sense if you scroll back and guess the context.
Tapbacks get the same treatment. Until now, reacting to a photo or video from an Android contact often produced a separate text on the other side — something like “Jane loved an image” — rather than a heart or thumbs-up sitting on the media. In iOS 27 those reactions render as reactions. Apple’s guide now lists read receipts, typing indicators, Tapbacks, inline replies, and high-resolution photos and videos among the RCS features Messages supports.
Both pieces belong to the RCS Universal Profile 2.7 specification. Apple had not shipped them until now. The features showed up in iOS 27 betas over the summer — testers noted proper emoji reactions and threaded replies as early as beta 2 in June — and are part of the public release.
They land on top of a larger security change from earlier in the year. In May, Apple said end-to-end encrypted RCS had begun rolling out in beta with iOS 26.5 for supported carriers, in parallel with Google Messages. Apple and Google led the cross-industry work with the GSMA; encryption uses the Messaging Layer Security protocol in RCS Universal Profile 3.0, is on by default, and is marked with a lock icon in the thread. It only applies when both sides and their carriers support it.
Taken together, the 2026 updates narrow the practical gap between the inferior green-bubble RCS and superior blue-bubble iMessage. Editing and unsending messages are also in the newer RCS profiles and have not clearly arrived on iPhone yet; 9to5Mac has noted those as possible later additions. iMessage remains Apple’s fully encrypted default between Apple devices, and group features, effects, and Apple Intelligence tools such as one-tap suggestions and the new Drawing app in Messages are still iMessage-side experiences.
MacDailyNews Take: For mixed iPhone–Android chats, though, the everyday annoyances are a bit smaller: you can answer the message that was actually sent, and a reaction no longer dumps a sentence into the thread.
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