The claim

““Apple has announced it’s bringing iMessage to Android.””

There has been no Apple announcement that iMessage is coming to Android; recent headlines largely stem from Apple adopting RCS in iOS 18, which improves texting with Android but is not iMessage.

In the past week, this claim has circulated alongside posts about Apple adding RCS support, which can make Android–iPhone messaging look more like modern chat (better media, read receipts/typing indicators depending on carrier) but still uses SMS/MMS/RCS rather than iMessage. Apple’s iMessage remains exclusive to Apple platforms and is tied to Apple IDs and Apple’s end-to-end encryption scheme, whereas RCS is a carrier/GSMA standard and its encryption varies by implementation. Apple has publicly stated it will support RCS to improve interoperability, but that is distinct from porting iMessage to Android. Unless Apple explicitly announces an Android iMessage client (which it has not), the viral wording is inaccurate.