Another iMessage feature is coming to green bubble chats in iOS 27

Apple continues to close the gap between iMessage and RCS conversations. With the second beta of iOS 27, which was released to developers on Monday, Apple has enabled one more iMessage feature for users in conversations with green bubbles.

Until now, iPhone users could only use the reply feature in iMessage conversations. In RCS chats, messages could be reacted to with a little emoji, but there was no way to reply directly to a specific message. The limitation was a frequent complaint among users, especially as more Android messaging apps have supported replies for years.

This was mainly because when Apple first introduced RCS support with iOS 18, it implemented an older version of the RCS standard that lacked support for some messaging features available on other platforms. Now with iOS 27, Apple is finally giving users access to the latest RCS protocol.

iOS 27 enables inline replies for RCS

With the second iOS 27 developer beta, users can now long-press or swipe to reply to an RCS message and send an inline reply, bringing green-bubble conversations closer to feature parity with iMessage. Macworld can confirm that the feature works, although it is quite buggy in this beta and doesn’t always behave as expected.

The update also looks to improve support for Tapbacks and other message reactions. Backend code discovered by Macworld in iOS 27 beta 2 suggests Apple has made additional changes to how reactions are handled in RCS chats, although those improvements have yet to be fully documented.

Apple announced earlier this year that it would adopt the latest RCS Universal Profile specification, which includes support for features such as end-to-end encryption, replies, and improved reactions. The addition of inline replies in iOS 27 beta 2 appears to be one of the first visible signs of that transition.

As Apple continues updating its RCS implementation, the experience of messaging Android users from an iPhone is becoming increasingly similar to an iMessage conversation, even if the bubbles are still green.

Keep in mind that iOS 27 is still in beta and is available only to registered developers. A public beta will be released next month, while the official launch is set for this fall.