One of the biggest reasons why group chats are preferred in both Apple’s iMessage OR Sending RCS messages through Google Messages is the increased level of control that both services allow. Whether you’re an iPhone owner and everyone in your group is messaging from an Apple device or you’re on the Android team chatting with other Android users via RCS, your conversations have typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, and , when you need the phone to make less noise, the ability to mute a conversation or leave it completely. Most importantly, iMessage and RCS group chats both offer end-to-end encryption, unless you’re in a relationship with a mix of iPhone and Android phone owners.
And with the inclusion of RCS support with iOS 18group chats that include a mix of iPhone and Android participants have more features than ever — but it’s definitely not at the level you’ll experience when a conversation is entirely in iMessage or Google Messages. “Green bubble chats” from an iPhone to an Android phone can now include typing indicators, higher quality media, and easier group chats. Unfortunately, they do not include encryption at this time, but the RCS standard is under development and this cross-platform capability may come in time.
However, you won’t see those improvements unless someone in your text chain has either updated to iOS 18 on an iPhone or turned on RCS from their Google Messages app on Android. In those cases, group texts are sent via MMS, a decades-old messaging standard compatible with all phones and carriers, but it’s not designed to include the messaging features we’re used to.
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Regardless of how you’re in a group chat with others, you have the option to leave a conversation if it’s particularly annoying or if the conversation has simply run its course. Here are the steps to leave any conversation from your phone’s messaging app, whether it’s happening in iMessage, RCS, or as a mixed MMS conversation.
Leaving group chats on an iPhone
You can leave group chats on iPhone in two ways. You can either turn off a conversation, which keeps you in a conversation but no longer receives notifications about it, or you can leave completely and no longer have access to the conversation.
The option to leave a conversation appears in iMessage conversations with four or more participants.
On an iPhone, open Messages and go to the conversation thread you want to leave. At the top of the screen are the chat controls, a group of icons with participants. Tap this to open a pop-up menu. As long as your conversation has four or more participants, iOS gives you the ability to tap Leave this Conversation in red text. However, if your chat has three or fewer participants, the option is grayed out, but you can tap Hide alerts to prevent the conversation from notifying you further. touching Hide alerts it also allows you to mute a conversation, allowing you to keep access to a conversation without necessarily leaving it. These steps apply to both iMessage and RCS conversations.
Hide and block MMS conversations on an iPhone
Although you can’t officially leave MMS group chats, you can hide or block the chat. It’s not as good as leaving a conversation outright (other participants will still see you as in it), but at least you don’t have personal evidence that the conversation continues.
On an iPhone, visit the group chat and tap the chat controls. Instead of seeing Leave this conversationyou will see the option for it Delete and Block this conversation. If you prefer to just mute the conversation instead of deleting and blocking it, you can hit Hide alerts to silence him.
Instead of leaving a conversation, iOS offers the option to delete and block an MMS group conversation.
Leave group chats on an Android phone
On an Android phone that uses Google Messages, visit the conversation thread you want to leave. Tap the name of the conversation to display it Group details menu. At the bottom of the screen, tap Leave the group the button. Unlike iMessage, you can leave conversations with three participants.
The Leave Group button appears for RCS chats with three or more participants.
If you want to turn off notifications only, tap Notifications IN Group details screen to display a window with notification controls. This includes options to make the conversation stick Silent to prevent it from ringing your chat and if you tap screen lock, a pop-up menu will give you the option to prevent notifications. touch Don’t show notifications at all to enable.
Hide and block MMS chats on an Android phone
On an Android phone with Google Messages, follow the same steps to access notification control options. This involves visiting the MMS conversation and then tapping the conversation name or participant names at the top to display Group details menu. You won’t see one Leave the group option as you did with an RCS thread, but you get the same ability to touch Notifications to access the controls for hiding the conversation. This includes the same options to return the conversation Silent and to choose Don’t show notifications at all.
SMS vs. MMS vs. RCS
SMS stands for Short Message Service and debuted in 1992. Text messages are limited to 160 characters. MMS stands for “Multimedia Messaging Service” and supports sending photos, videos or other files and messages longer than 160 characters. MMS supports a group of people chatting in a single conversation, while SMS can send multiple messages at the same time, but is sent as individual messages to each person. RCS, which was launched 15 years ago, stands for Rich Communication Services and can show click indicators, read receipts and has end-to-end encryption.
While cross-platform chat apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have better chat controls, encryption, and privacy regardless of the type of phone participants are using, they don’t support SMS, MMS, or RCS. That’s why the default messaging app on most phones is still widely used, even if it means a group chat is on a less feature-packed and insecure standard like MMS.
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