With the arrival of Rich Communication Services (RCS) on iPhone last year, the experience of texting from iOS to Android improved dramatically. As Apple says on its website, RCS supports delivery receipts, read receipts, and typing indicators on messages from non-Apple devices. It’s a step in the right direction, but there is always room for improvement. Thankfully, another long-awaited RCS feature appears to be getting closer to a public rollout.
As spotted by Android Authority on Tuesday, the introduction of a new RCS Universal Profile earlier in 2025 has seemingly opened the door to cross-platform text editing. Apple added the ability to edit and unsend texts in iOS 16, but that was only possible between two iOS devices. Android users could similarly only edit texts to other Android devices. As RCS Universal Profile 3.0 rolls out, some Android users are suddenly able to edit texts sent to iPhones.
It’s unclear who all has access to this functionality, but there’s an easy way to find out if you do. Owners of Android phones can send an RCS message to an iPhone, and then tap and hold the sent text. At the top of the screen, you should see a pencil icon. Tap that icon and the reply box should populate with the original text, which you can now edit.
According to Android Authority, the feature worked when sending texts to iPhones running iOS 18.5 as well as the iOS 26 beta. They were able to edit the sent text messages within the same 15-minute window that each platform operates under.
Unfortunately, there’s a pretty major issue with the feature at the moment. While the edited text shows up as expected on the Android user’s end, the iOS user receives a second message with the edited text preceded by an asterisk.
In other words, the feature is clearly not ready for primetime yet. Android Authority also pointed out that there have only been a couple of other reports from users who have spotted the feature, including this Redditor. For now, only a limited number of testers have access to the feature, but here’s hoping a wide release is being prepped for later this year.
