Apple releases iOS 18 beta 2 with RCS toggle and wireless iPhone screen mirroring on Mac

With RCS support, texting between Android and iOS is expected to become seamless.

iOS 18 | iOS 18 new features | iOS 18 customisation options

iOS 18 will also have new AI powered features. (Image Source: Apple/YouTube)

Apple, on Monday, June 24, released its second developer beta version of iOS 18 with several new features, including the support toggle for Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging, which will soon enable seamless multimedia exchange between iPhones and Android smartphones. This update comes just two weeks after the release of the first iOS 18 developer beta at Apple’s WWDC 2024 held in Cupertino, California, US.

Besides iOS 18 beta 2, Apple has also released macOS Sequoia beta 2, iPadOS 18 beta 2, watchOS 11 beta 2, visionOS 2 beta 2, and tvOS 18 beta 2.

Also read | iOS 18 and iPadOS 18: Key features and complete list of eligible devices

For now, the RCS messaging toggle is only visible for beta testers in the US with a specific network provider that supports the RCS protocol. Enabling it doesn’t seem to do much yet, and the company is expected to introduce the actual capability of sending and receiving multimedia files such as images, videos, and audio between Android and iOS devices in the coming days.

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Despite introducing the RCS standard, messages sent from an Android smartphone will appear in a green bubble instead of the blue one on iMessage. However, users will experience a rich messaging experience within the native messaging app, including typing indicators and read receipts, similar to WhatsApp and Telegram.

In the first developer beta version of iOS 18, Dark Mode didn’t play well with some first-party app icons like the App Store. Apple has addressed this with the second beta and is also introducing features such as wireless iPhone screen mirroring on Macs running macOS Sequoia.

Also read | It’s official: Apple will support RCS, making texting to Android devices seamless

The second beta also introduces the Connected Card Wallet widget, an updated Passwords app, and the ability to further customise the Control Centre.

These features will be coming to every eligible iPhone in September, once Apple rolls out the stable version of iOS 18 after the launch of the iPhone 16 series. The company is also expected to release the public beta version of the operating system, which should be more stable than the developer beta.

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