{"id":42351,"date":"2024-09-25T14:14:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T13:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/?p=42351"},"modified":"2024-09-25T14:23:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T13:23:25","slug":"apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apple released its iOS 18 software, finally allowing iPhone users to send and receive Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages. This launch is the culmination of years of collaboration across network operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers. It represents a step forward in bringing RCS\u2019s feature-rich messaging to more users across both iOS and Android. Apple also revealed it will allow third-party app stores on the iPad across the European Union as part of a move to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Starting with iPadOS 18, Apple stated that users in the EU will be able to install alternative app stores and delete Apple native apps. While the DMA directly is only effective in the EU, these changes can have some global impact similar to the recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/featured-content\/home-banner\/apple-ports-usb-c-into-iphone-15-updates-watch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">standardized USB Type-C charging ports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/apple\/apple-issues-rcs-enabled-ios-18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mobile World Live<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/devices\/third-party-app-stores-to-open-doors-on-apple-ipad-in-eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mobile World Live<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple released its iOS 18 software, finally allowing iPhone users to send and receive Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages. This launch is the culmination of years of collaboration across network operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers. It represents a step forward in bringing RCS\u2019s feature-rich messaging to more users across both iOS and Android. Apple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":42353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67,6894,60],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[],"class_list":["post-42351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","category-5g-digest","category-latest-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.6 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores - Networks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apple released its iOS 18 software, finally allowing iPhone users to send and receive Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages. This launch is the culmination of years of collaboration across network operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers. It represents a step forward in bringing RCS\u2019s feature-rich messaging to more users across both iOS and Android. Apple [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Networks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-25T13:14:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-25T13:23:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"789\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"572\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"esargeant@gsma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"esargeant@gsma.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores - Networks","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores","og_description":"Apple released its iOS 18 software, finally allowing iPhone users to send and receive Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages. This launch is the culmination of years of collaboration across network operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers. It represents a step forward in bringing RCS\u2019s feature-rich messaging to more users across both iOS and Android. Apple [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/","og_site_name":"Networks","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2024-09-25T13:14:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-25T13:23:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":789,"height":572,"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"esargeant@gsma.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"esargeant@gsma.com","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/"},"author":{"name":"esargeant@gsma.com","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/#\/schema\/person\/66f586ccd1dccb7f46e5076ec4163af4"},"headline":"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores","datePublished":"2024-09-25T13:14:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-25T13:23:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/"},"wordCount":147,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png","articleSection":["5G","5G Digest","Latest News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/","name":"Apple is opening up: RCS and third-party app stores - Networks","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png","datePublished":"2024-09-25T13:14:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-25T13:23:25+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/5g\/apple-is-opening-up-rcs-and-third-party-app-stores\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/RCS_5G_news_789x572.png","width":789,"height":572,"caption":"Three people are standing close together, each holding a smartphone. 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