What you need to know iOS 17 beta users will find handy changes to the Messages app, especially in group chats. iPhone users running the latest beta can edit the green texts in group chats involving Android users. In addition, media files are much less compressed for iPhone users in mixed group chats.
Following Apple’s WWDC keynote, iPhone users are getting new features in the Messages app aimed at improving the group chat experience…for iPhone users, at least.
According to XDA Developers, with the announcement of iOS 17 this Monday, iPhone users will apparently be able to edit infamous green texts when in a group chat with Android users. You can also reply in threads and send higher quality media to other iPhone users in group chats.
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(Credit: XDA Developers)(Credit: XDA Developers)(Credit: XDA Developers)
These features began appearing on iPhones running the latest iOS 17 developer beta after the software was released this week. Surprisingly, the features weren’t highlighted at the WWDC’23 keynote. From the XDA report, as an iPhone user running iOS 17, you can now edit your texts like you would in a regular iMessage chat between iPhones.
However, Android recipients will apparently not see the edited texts. At least that’s the current behavior of this first beta.
It’s unclear if and when Android phone recipients will see the changed message, but XDA speculates that it could happen in some form later, possibly as a second separate text. Meanwhile, other iPhone users in the chat can see that the text has been edited.
Additionally, users can now reply directly to messages in mixed group chats, making it easier to follow individual conversations. Android users can at least see these message threads, but apparently not in the order they should appear.
Finally, the XDA report states that some improvements have been noticed when sending images and videos in a mixed group chat. With iOS 17, iPhone users now get fuller quality media like they would normally get in an iMessage chat, meaning images and videos aren’t drastically compressed. However, this does not apply to Android users who still receive highly compressed images and videos.
From the looks of it, it looks like Apple will come up with a workaround to fix mixed group chats without RCS, which Google has been campaigning for. However, the solution only seems to be beneficial for iPhones, while still leaving Android users with a flawed (and seemingly worse) experience.
Of course, this is only the first beta, so behavior may change in future updates. However, Apple seems unlikely to thwart Android users as RCS was not mentioned in its keynote when highlighting new iMessage features.
