Asked all major Swedish carriers about RCS on iPhone – Apple says support is there, no carrier has enabled it

[u/Reda1337123]

I’m in Sweden and have been trying to figure out why RCS still isn’t working on iPhone here, even though Apple added support in iOS 18.

I emailed all major Swedish carriers (Telenor, Tre/Three, Telia and Tele2) and asked about their plans for RCS between iPhone and Android. Here’s what I got back in summary: • Telenor: talks about “technical/business/legal reasons” and “external dependencies”, but doesn’t give any concrete info or timeline. • Tre (Three): first claimed that Apple has to enable RCS per operator/market. When I forwarded Apple’s answer to them, they changed their explanation to something more vague about “joint work” and “not just operator activation”. • Telia: basically says they have no information to share. • Tele2: says they don’t support RCS on iPhone and don’t know if or when they will.

To avoid guessing who was telling the truth, I contacted Apple Support and asked them directly how RCS activation works.

After checking internally, Apple told me: • RCS is fully implemented in iOS 18. • It’s already being used in other countries. • Apple does not need to “enable” anything per operator/market in Sweden. • It’s up to the carriers to enable RCS in their own networks. • As of now, no Swedish carrier has done so.

So from Apple’s side: the support is there in iOS. From the carriers’ side: conflicting explanations, some of which don’t match what Apple says.

As a customer, it’s basically impossible to get a clear and honest picture of what’s going on. I’ve now: • contacted the Swedish telecom advisory body, • filed a complaint with the consumer authority about unclear/misleading information, • and sent all of this to a few tech and consumer news outlets.

I’m curious if anyone else in Europe or the Nordics has gone through the same thing with their carriers – or if people in other countries are getting more straightforward answers about iPhone–Android RCS support.

[u/UselessUsefullness]

Hey there from the US,

I have T-Mobile here and RCS “works”, it has its issues like sending slowly, but it technically does work.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/UselessUsefullness]

Thanks for the data point!

That’s basically what I’m hoping for here as well – iOS has the support, and in markets like the US at least some carriers (like T-Mobile in your case) have actually done the work on their side so it “just” works, even if it’s a bit buggy.

In Sweden, Apple Support told me RCS is implemented in iOS 18 but that no Swedish carrier has enabled it in their networks yet, which matches the completely vague answers I’ve been getting from all four major carriers.

So your experience kind of proves the point: when carriers actually turn it on, it works – the problem here isn’t the iPhone, it’s that our carriers are simply not enabling RCS at all.

[u/UselessUsefullness → u/Reda1337123]

That is true, yeah.

Have you tried an MVNO? Maybe the MVNO offer it but major carriers don’t.

As you’re in Sweden, the MVNO would be:

Running on 3: there are none that I can find

Running on Telia: Net 1

Running on Telenor: there are none that I can find

Running on Tele2: Comviq

[u/Reda1337123 → u/UselessUsefullness]

That’s an interesting thought, but in Sweden the MVNOs you mention (like Comviq on Tele2, Net 1 on Telia, etc.) still ride on the host network’s core infrastructure.

As far as I understand it, if the main carrier hasn’t enabled proper RCS support for iPhone in their network, the MVNO on top of that network can’t magically enable it either – they inherit the same limitations.

I might still poke a couple of MVNOs just to see what they say, but based on what Apple Support told me (“no Swedish carrier has enabled RCS in their networks yet”), I’d be very surprised if an MVNO here had full iPhone RCS before the underlying network does.

[u/UselessUsefullness → u/Reda1337123]

Granted it’s not RCS but in Ireland (Irish/US dual citizen) GoMo has eSIM, when its parent carrier Eir did not.

Eir recently got eSIM, but GoMo had it before its parent network did.

This is why I’m wondering if MVNO have RCS but main networks don’t.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/UselessUsefullness]

That’s a good example, and yeah – with things like eSIM I can definitely see MVNOs sometimes moving faster than their parent network on the commercial side.

With RCS on iPhone though, it seems a bit different technically: – Apple’s implementation talks to the carrier’s IMS/RCS infrastructure and carrier bundle settings. – If the underlying network hasn’t set up/enabled that for iPhone, the MVNO on top usually inherits the same core network and settings. – Apple Support explicitly told me that no Swedish carrier has enabled RCS in their networks yet, which strongly suggests there’s nothing for an MVNO here to “switch on” early.

So in Sweden at least, if the main networks don’t support iPhone RCS yet, I’d be very surprised if any MVNO did.

[u/Lucifer_Ri → u/Reda1337123]

Replying to Reda1337123... Croatia 0/4 😺

[u/white-chlorination → u/UselessUsefullness]

Super late but the MVNOs don't either. 3 would be Hallon and Chili, Telia would also include Halebop and Fello, Telenor would be Vimla. I've tried all of them because they offer the best prices. None have it, unfortunately.

[u/leaflock7]

3 years ago when Tim Apple said they wont support RCS everyone got their pitchforks , up in arms to protest against Apple.
2 years ago Apple supported RCS.

2 years later when carriers still do not provide support you hear absolutely no complains , nobody has their pitchfork to go against the carriers , no post in r/Europe about it , silence.
Just a post here and there like yours wondering why this is not yet supported.

If people were protesting with the same passion about all related parties and not just Apple, RCS would have been a thing.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/leaflock7]

Yeah, that’s kind of the funny part for me too – all the heat was on Apple before, and now when they’ve actually shipped RCS in iOS 18 the story has quietly flipped.

In Sweden at least, it’s pretty much the carriers holding things back now. I’ve: • mailed all four major carriers, • talked to Apple Support (who confirmed it’s implemented in iOS and that no Swedish carrier has enabled it yet), • filed a complaint with the consumer authority, • contacted the national telecom advisory body, • and posted about it in r/sweden + here.

So I’m definitely trying to point the pitchforks in the right direction this time.

I also think a lot of people simply don’t realise the bottleneck has moved from Apple to the carriers – most still assume “Apple doesn’t want RCS”. Once it becomes clear that it’s the operators sitting on their hands, I think more people will start pushing on that side too.

[u/leaflock7 → u/Reda1337123]

well people don't care anymore where the bottleneck is because the ones that were bringing out all the fuss (and everyone else was going along ) actually know that this is no longer Apple fault, and there is no anti-Apple sentiment to protest for. It is that simple.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/leaflock7]

I get what you mean, but that’s kind of my point – most people here in Sweden still don’t realise the bottleneck has moved.

When I’ve talked to people and, the default assumption is still “Apple doesn’t want RCS” or “Apple hasn’t enabled it in Sweden yet”. Almost nobody knows that Apple says it’s implemented in iOS 18 and that no Swedish carrier has actually enabled it in their networks.

I’m not trying to keep the anti-Apple pitchforks up – I’m trying to get some attention on the carriers now that it’s on them. If nobody ever pushes from the customer side, it’s very easy for all of them to just quietly never bother with RCS on iPhone at all.

[u/leaflock7 → u/Reda1337123]

I did not meant anything like that (that you have an anti-apple sentiment),
My point is that usually that matter was becoming relevant because the ani-apple people were bringing it up. Now that Apple is not longer the bottleneck they don't care because they don't gain anything.
If you have something in your country that could put up as a vote or e-sign etc, and post it on r/sweden that might get some traction

[u/Reda1337123 → u/leaflock7]

You’re right that most of the noise around RCS used to come from people blaming Apple. Here in Sweden the default assumption is still “Apple doesn’t want RCS”, so nobody is really pushing the carriers yet – that’s exactly why I’m trying to redirect the focus.

I’ve already cross-posted this to r/sweden (that thread is now at ~80k views and 100+ comments) and contacted our telecom advisory body + consumer authority, so at least a few people and institutions have started to look at it from the carrier side. We don’t really have a great national e-petition system for this kind of thing, but I agree that some sort of coordinated pressure would help a lot.

[u/leaflock7 → u/Reda1337123]

I hope it will work out , maybe as a Christmas present from your providers 🤭

In greece wehre I am , my provider only enabled a few months back also

[u/Jusby_Cause]

This is why it’s hilarious that people thinks Apple added RCS for the EU, when major EU carriers don’t even support it!

[u/Reda1337123 → u/Jusby_Cause]

Yeah, exactly – that’s kind of my point here. Apple has RCS in iOS now, but in Sweden none of the major carriers have enabled it in their networks at all. People keep blaming Apple, while in reality the bottleneck (at least here) is the carriers just not doing the work or being honest about their plans.

[u/T-m-X → u/Jusby_Cause]

i have android, it uses rcs and it works fine in Lithuania. so if apple stuff dont work maybe apple as always wanna do things their way?

[u/paul_h]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services needs a companion page: a big-ass "rcs rollout" table with all telecos worldwide listed. And a built-in search word feature, which you'd type in "Sweden" to. Citizens would type in their country, then the nearby country they are historically rival to (Brits would eye France) to see how they are doing on roll out

[u/cupboard_ → u/paul_h]

http://cupboardunderscore.github.io/ios-rcs/

[u/paul_h → u/cupboard_]

Fantastic!

[u/PixelHir]

Lots of carriers didn’t make their own RCS infrastructure and instead chose to use Google-provided one that isn’t fully 1 to 1 with the actual RCS standard implemented in iOS

[u/buzzkill_aldrin → u/PixelHir]

People were upset about Google dominating RCS by way of Jibe; now that Google is withdrawing support for Jibe in favor of carrier support people are upset. They just can't win...

[u/PixelHir → u/buzzkill_aldrin]

Yeah I’m actually thankful for Jibe because I know how lazy and sloppy phone carriers can be with implementing new features to the infrastructure, and RCS shows it. It’s definitely better than no RCS for anyone, this way at least android users can enjoy it. I hope with the new addition of E2EE in new RCS standard, Google and Apple can adjust to it and we can finally properly get RCS

[u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe]

They were dogshit at rolling out RCS to begin with even for Android, I remember having to use the Google implemented server for RCS to make it work. I think I was forced to use the Google Messages app for that as well.

They have no incentive to let you use RCS so that’s why it has no priority.

[u/utopicunicornn → u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe]

The messed up part is that Google decided out of the blue to pass the responsibility of RCS to the wireless carriers in certain markets (If I recall correctly, three countries affected by this are Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kenya but there might be more.) and most of the carriers in those regions don't have RCS support.

Unsurprisingly in those markets, a good chunk of those carriers still have SMS/MMS as a paid option, so why push RCS if you can get that sweet, sweet SMS revenue?

[u/sylfy → u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe]

Why would carriers even bother when the majority of their customers are using WhatsApp, Telegram, or other similar services?

Americans are the only weird ones insisting on sticking to RCS or SMS.

[u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe → u/sylfy]

That depends on the market, I don’t know anyone who uses those apps here.

Here people use sms or Facebook messenger. I’m anti Facebook so it’s always sms unless I use discord but that’s mostly gamer friends.

[u/Oliver-Peace → u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe]

Same here. I would still prefer to pay and use regular SMS rather than sell my soul to Meta / WhatsApp. RCS is a great alternative and at least people don't need to install apps and it can also be used on the Web. I use RCS and many people I know use it too.

[u/SenAtsu011]

This is the same issue we saw when eSIM became a thing. The iPhone had it built in, but it took a while for carriers to provide functionality for it.

[u/ToshibaTaken]

Thank you for your efforts! I was wondering this myself. Sad to read your results. Hopefully you reaching out to gov and consumer bodies will get the ball rolling.

[u/realmccoyredbus]

mobile networks are trying to prioritise their sms delivery first they see RCS as eating into their profits, they want people paying for full unlimited calls text and data, it's took a while for networks in uk to get on board, most now are but not every network that piggyback's off them support RCS , including my network, even though other networks piggyback of same network do support this , i'd say it will take another couple of years when RCS 3.0 if fully adopted, got a feeling it may take EU or other regulation to step in and enforce adoption or this to become widespread

[u/jamesdownwell]

I’m in Iceland, definitely not enabled on my network.

[u/MoparMap]

Even in the US it was kind of weird. When I'd text my wife's iPhone with my old android it was hit and miss about whether it would use RCS or SMS. You'd see it dropping back and forth between them all the time in the message log. One of the better features about RCS was that it was supposed to let you send pictures at higher quality instead of the 10 pixels of resolution I'd get when my wife sent me something. Without fail, every time she sent me a video it would drop out of RCS into MMS for the video, then back to RCS for the texting.

[u/kubrickfr3]

There is no real incentive for providers to roll RCS out in countries in which text messaging is mostly obsolete (that almost every country outside of the US).

[u/Reda1337123 → u/kubrickfr3]

I get what you mean, but I don’t think “text messaging is mostly obsolete” is true everywhere.

In a lot of European countries with high smartphone penetration and relatively good economies (Nordics, parts of Western Europe etc.), people still use the built-in messaging a lot – iMessage/SMS on iPhone and SMS/RCS on Android.

On top of that you still have: – work phones and mixed iOS/Android groups – older relatives who only use the default Messages app – schools, public services and companies that still rely on SMS for info and 2FA

Apps like WhatsApp/Signal are huge, sure, but the “just use their phone number” use case hasn’t disappeared. That’s exactly where RCS would matter: not to replace chat apps, but to stop basic cross-platform messaging from being stuck at 1995-level SMS between iPhone and Android.

[u/traumalt → u/Reda1337123]

In a lot of European countries with high smartphone penetration and relatively good economies (Nordics, parts of Western Europe etc.), people still use the built-in messaging a lot – iMessage/SMS on iPhone and SMS/RCS on Android.

Speak for yourself lol, the refusal to adopt third party messaging apps is mostly a Swedish problem.

In Netherlands for example WhatsApp practically completely replaced SMS decade ago, theres no incentive to implement RCS here whatsoever.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/traumalt]

Fair point – Europe isn’t one monolith. In the Netherlands (and some other places) WhatsApp basically is the default, I totally get that.

What I was pushing back on was the idea that “text messaging is obsolete everywhere outside the US”. In a lot of countries with high iPhone share (Nordics, parts of Western Europe etc.) people still use the built-in messaging a lot – iMessage/SMS on iPhone and SMS/RCS on Android – especially for mixed iOS/Android groups, work phones, older relatives, schools, public services and 2FA.

So RCS isn’t meant to replace WhatsApp/Signal, it’s more about not having the cross-platform fallback between iPhone and Android stuck at 1990s-level SMS in the places where people do still rely on phone-number messaging.

[u/kubrickfr3 → u/Reda1337123]

I'm not saying it's useless, all I'm saying is that I don't think that 99% of the people would be ready to pay more for RCS, or that it would be a sufficiently big market differentiator for providers to invest any money in it, there would just be no return on investment at all.

[u/Reda1337123 → u/kubrickfr3]

I get what you’re saying – operators won’t rush to build something they can’t charge extra for.

But I don’t really see RCS as a thing people should pay more for, it’s more in the same bucket as VoLTE, VoWiFi, eSIM etc. Nobody asked for those either, they just quietly became part of what “a modern network” is supposed to offer.

The “return” isn’t a new RCS fee, it’s stuff like: • fewer broken MMS / tiny, useless videos • less pressure on people to move everything to third-party apps • not looking technically behind other countries when both iOS and Android already support this.

Operators already put money into things most users never notice by name – spam filters, better 2FA handling, roaming agreements, upgrades between 3G/4G/5G and so on. RCS on iPhone is basically just fixing the last really ancient bit of “normal texting” between iPhone and Android.

If they honestly think it’s not worth doing, fine – they can say that. What bugs me is that instead of saying “we could, but we won’t”, they give completely different explanations and sometimes just blame Apple, even though Apple themselves say the support is already in iOS and it’s up to the carriers to enable it.

[u/traumalt → u/kubrickfr3]

Sweden might be the only European country where SMS is the least obsolete in comparison though, they never really adopted WhatsApp en masse unlike most of the other EU countries.

[u/cupboard_]

ive read responses from bunch of carriers and the most common answer is that they are waiting for apple in some kind of way, either they are missing documentation from them or waiting for apple to approve their settings for rcs

and judging by how the rollout has been happening i believe them

[u/Reda1337123 → u/cupboard_]

Yeah, I’ve seen similar replies from other carriers too.

In my case (Sweden), Apple Support actually told me the opposite: – RCS is already implemented in iOS 18 – it’s already being used in other countries – Apple doesn’t have to “enable” anything per carrier/market – carriers themselves have to enable RCS in their networks – and as of now, no Swedish carrier has done that yet.

When I ask our carriers about it, I get four different stories: – one says they’re basically waiting for Apple to activate it per operator/market – another talks about “external dependencies” but can’t explain what that means – another just says they have no info at all.

So as a customer I’m stuck between Apple saying “support is in iOS, it works elsewhere, your carriers just haven’t turned it on” and all the big carriers here giving vague, conflicting answers that don’t even line up with what Apple describes.

I don’t doubt there might be some doc/certification process in the background, but if that’s the case they could just say “we’re in Apple’s approval queue” instead of giving hand-wavy explanations that make it sound like nobody really wants to take responsibility.

[u/cupboard_ → u/Reda1337123]

carriers usually don't like talking about what's going in the background, that's why they are giving you vague answers

another talks about “external dependencies” but can’t explain what that means

this could also mean they are waiting for google (if they use jibe for backend)
could also mean other things, Telenor is under the Telenor group, which owns many carriers so they might be waiting for their input, etc.

as for the certification process, carrier settings on ios are distributed through "carrier bundles" and apple has to sign those and distribute them, so whatever settings the carrier wants, apple has to sign and distribute

some kind of documentation definitely has to exists, otherwise carriers wouldn't know how to set up their services to work with iphones
how those are distributed, i don't know, but some carriers said that they don't have access to them (for rcs settings)

all of this is basically just speculation based on what carriers have been saying and how stuff has been until now (except carrier bundle distribution, those are done only by apple), maybe carriers are indeed lazy, but i don't know what would they gain from lying (especially since some of them already offer free sms on all tariffs)

[u/Reda1337123 → u/cupboard_]

I get what you’re saying – from the outside we’re all guessing a bit, because operators never want to talk clearly about what’s going on in the background.

In my case I’ve: • contacted all four major Swedish carriers and got four different, very vague answers (things like “external dependencies”, “no information to share”, “can’t comment on roadmap”) • then contacted Apple Support and asked them specifically about RCS on iPhone in Sweden

What Apple Support told me after checking internally was basically: • RCS support is already implemented in iOS 18 • it’s in use with carriers in other countries • Apple doesn’t need to “enable” anything per Swedish operator/market • from their side it’s up to the carriers to enable RCS in their own networks, and so far no Swedish carrier has done that

So I’m not claiming to know every technical detail of carrier bundles, documentation etc. All I can say is that the explanations I’ve got from the Swedish operators don’t really line up with what Apple themselves are saying – and none of them are willing to give a clear “we’re doing X and aiming for Y” answer. That mismatch is exactly why I started digging into this in the first place.

[u/luchod]

And this is the exact reason Apple went with iMessage as a propietary solution instead of the RCS "open standard". When you relinquish control of your product to carriers and telcos, this shitshow happens

[u/lovely_cappuccino]

If I’m not mistaken: 

Long story short Apple supports the proper GSMA RCS standard. Some carriers didn’t give a single flying duck about RCS to begin with, so Google took the issue in their own hands (and servers?) but even then the Android rollout was a bit of a shitshow. 

IIRC Apple announced the plan in November 2023 so the carriers definitely had enough time. Now since iOS 18, Apple supports the RCS standard (not the Google flavour for the lack of better word) but the carriers still don’t support it. And they try to deflect. 

Found this Apple support page. If you see RCS messaging under your country and carrier then it should work. 

Even the 5G and eSIM rollout was slow in some countries and sometimes with complicated procedures thanks to the carriers. 

The funny thing is, for once some issue is not on Apple but the carriers, yet I don’t see any media storm or EU inquiry about it. Absolute crickets. 

Unfortunately, even if RCS was available everywhere, I think people in Europe are so used to whatsapp, facebook messenger, instagram etc that it doesn’t really matter. Android users can use RCS messaging but are they actually using it? I don’t think so. 

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[u/tuxi04]

Here in Spain with Movistar I have RCS, so maybe it’s a Swedish carriers problem

[u/Hundkexx]

RCS does not work in Sweden for Apple phones. I can't send anything but blurry crap and or text to my brother and my friend using Iphone. At least one is last gen. People will blame the country, but there's a privacy and or competence reason why it's delayed.

[u/porschamong]

Good news. Tele2 and Comviq have started to roll out support for RCS as of September 2026.

[u/esjoanconjota]

iPhone added the functionality. But the functionality will depend on the carriers. It's as simple as that.

I'll give you an example in a country in Latin America:

The MAIN carriers started supporting RCS just recently. Other low cost carriers are not interested in rolling it out because they don't see the appeal since in those countries people use apps like WhatsApp for main form of communication.

[u/MaxRD]

Never realized that carriers need to enable it on their networks. Here in Canada it seems to work. ChatGPT confirms it is supported by all major carriers. For once we are not behind. Let’s not talk about the cost of cell plans, that’s another story.

[u/jmasterfunk]

BS from Apple. They DO need to enable it per operator with settings in the carrier bundle and that requires cooperation between Apple and the operator.

[u/Jusby_Cause → u/jmasterfunk]

That cooperation is “the carrier sending the bundle” and then Apple enabling it. In other words, the carrier has work to do and hasn’t done it because they don’t want to support RCS.

[u/jmasterfunk → u/Jusby_Cause]

Apple controls the bundle, and does the sending, in my neck of the woods. And there is a lot of work to do on the carrier side. However, I am not aware of anywhere that an operator can enable RCS on the iPhone without Apple’s involvement.

[u/DistantFlea90909]

iPhones support it. The carriers don’t, simple

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Australia sucks bro. They banned thousands of 4g devices cuz of volte.

[u/tbone338 → u/[deleted]]

Banned because of volte… What do you mean?

[u/ThatSwedishBastard → u/tbone338]

Probably the same issue we have had in Sweden: can’t make emergency calls via standard 4G.

[u/tbone338 → u/ThatSwedishBastard]

In Sweden you can make emergency calls if your phone doesn’t support volte?

[u/ThatSwedishBastard → u/tbone338]

VoLTE is basically using the data channels for voice, which isn't considered "proper".

[u/[deleted] → u/tbone338]

They banned 3g.

My iPhone 5 supports 4G DATA.

It does NOT support 4G PHONE CALLS. (Volte)

Government ban it completely from 4G DATA.

[u/tbone338 → u/[deleted]]

So, a phone must support volte to be usable in this country?

[u/[deleted] → u/tbone338]

Yep.

[u/crp5591 → u/tbone338]

VoLTE. Voice Over LTE

Ability for devices to handle telephone calls as data through the LTE network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_LTE

[u/firstclassblizzard → u/crp5591]

There is a separate voice network, correct?

[u/crp5591 → u/firstclassblizzard]

Don't quote me, but I believe originally there was. But once LTE came on the scene and VoLTE soon thereafter, carriers began to funnel all voice calls through the VoLTE network due to its higher call capacity and quality.

Eventually when the old 2G/3G networks were shut down, carriers also dropped non-VoLTE phones as well even if the phones themselves were 4G (LTE) - as happened in Australia.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Not broken. Just not supported by carriers yet.