Texting between iPhones and Androids used to be a slog. That's because Apple limited its users to SMS when messaging Androids, which stripped away many of the modern chat features we've gotten used to—like, say, functioning group chats.
That radically changed once Apple rolled out support for RCS: This messaging protocol had been standard on Android for years, but by allowing iPhones to use it rather than SMS, suddenly “green bubbles” conversations weren't so crummy. On the contrary, RCS adds most of the key iMessage perks you might expect, like typing indicators, high-quality image and video sharing, and, of course, functioning group chats.
But the transition isn't complete yet. RCS actually supports more features than these, though just not on iOS. That includes end-to-end encryption (though some Android-to-Android chats are also not encrypted), and message editing, or the ability to adjust a message after you sent it. Luckily, that's now changing.
As reported by Android Authority, cross-platform message editing is now rolling out to Google Messages users. That means if you text an iPhone user via RCS in Google Messages, you'll have the option to edit that text for up to 15 minutes after it was sent. Android Authority confirms the feature works when texting iPhone users running both iOS 18.5 and the iOS 26 beta. That goes for group chats as well as one-on-one messaging.
What do you think so far?
This is of course a great update, but it comes with some big caveats. First, it appears to be rolling out in limited testing. While Android Authority's Mishaal Rahman has access to the feature, it does seem like Google is making this a slow launch, so you might need to wait before seeing it on your end. To that point, if you have an iPhone, you won't see it on your end—at least, not yet. At this time, this is only a Google Messages feature, and not something that Apple currently supports. In fact, edited messages appear as a brand new message to iPhone users, with an asterisk at the top to denote that something was changed.
iMessage itself supports message editing (and end-to-end encryption, for that matter), but since iMessage only works between iPhones, it's yet another feature that won't appear when you're texting your Android friends. I'm hopeful that as RCS advances and Apple adopts more of its features, we'll see more cross-platform support for these features. Maybe soon, you'll be able to text Android users via RCS knowing your messages are protected by end-to-end encryption, or be able to edit a message you sent from your iPhone to any contact, not just your other iPhone friends. Right now, however, it looks like Google Messages user have the advantage here, while us iPhone users will need to read their edits as another entire message entirely.
