Apple Services Expands to Maldives along with Other New Markets

Apple has introduced its services to multiple new countries and regions in total of 72 new markets. The expansion of services provides App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcast and iCloud launch in 20 new countries and Apple Music is available in 52 additional countries.

We’re delighted to bring many of Apple’s most beloved Services to users in more countries than ever before
Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content.

The App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple Podcast and iCloud is now available in countries and regions below:

Africa: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Libya, Morocco, Rwanda, and Zambia.
Asia-Pacific: Maldives and Myanmar.
Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.
Middle East: Afghanistan (excluding Apple Music) and Iraq.
Oceania: Nauru (excluding Apple Music), Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Whilst the extension of Apple music is yet provided to the following countries and regions:

Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Chad, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
Asia-Pacific: Bhutan.
Europe: Croatia, Iceland, and North Macedonia.
Latin America and the Caribbean: the Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos, and Uruguay.
Middle East: Kuwait, Qatar, and Yemen.
Oceania: Solomon Islands.

We hope our customers can discover their new favorite apps, games, music, and podcasts as we continue to celebrate the world’s best creators, artists, and developers.
Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content

With the press release, word has spread with speculations tats the company is widely expected to launch a media services bundle within the next couple of years, which would offer a combination of Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ for a lower monthly fee than buying each service individually.

This comes as a happy news to the majority of the population in Maldives. Maldives as country known to have half of its population hooked on Apple products, this shall give them an extra mile to go with the products and services provided by Apple.

Finding common ground to create a group chat can be a tricky task. For most iPhone users, the go-to messaging platform is usually iMessages. Although Apple has created this ease for texting between iPhone users, iMessage is unavailable across platforms. This has created the difficulty in reaching to your friends who use Google or Android phones. Now, you’re either left resorting to SMS, or other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Messenger. But what if there was one single solution for it all – the RCS (Rich Communication Services)

What is RCS?

Although this might be the first time many of us heard the phrase RCS, this messaging channel is not new. RCS or Rich Communication Services was first conceived years ago, but it’s finally gaining popularity. RCS messaging is the upgrade that users need to get the same features available on iMessage. Unlike the iMessage system, RCS creates the perfect single-platform messaging App.

With the new RCS update, users can explore a variety of messaging features. Everything from sending and receiving large files such as high-resolution pictures and videos, read receipts, reactions, and typing indicators are all available!

But why are we hearing about this just now? Well, Google decided to add RCS to its default messaging Apps. With this new update, RCS became a popular hit, with Google reporting 650 million users monthly. Google data additionally shows that people are 35x more likely to read RCS messages than emails, while also using RCS messages to engage with brands. Here is how you can turn on RCS messaging as well!

Gone are the days of struggling to create a group chat with a combination of Android and Apple users. This addition has created the perfect single-platform messaging App, the days of struggling to text between users of different branded phones are a thing of the past. Although Google has taken the bold step to embrace RCS messaging, allowing users to enjoy the exceptional features, what’s the update on Apple?

Will Apple Embrace the RCS Messaging Platform?

There have been rumours that Apple is ready to embrace the RCS messaging platform in 2024. According to 9to5mac, the RCS feature is set to launch via a software update later this year. This would completely remove the barrier of iMessage features between Android and iPhone users.

Later next year, we will be adding the support for RCS Universal Profile, the standards as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users, says an Apple Spokesperson talking to 9to5mac in November 2023.

Does this mean Apple is replacing iMessage? Of course not. Apple continues to reiterate that iMessage is the safest messaging platform for Apple users. RCS, if available on Apple later this year, will be adopted separately from iMessage. This will open up new horizons for communications and group chats in 2024!

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