iPhone finally supports encrypted RCS for better Android messaging – here's why that matters

Woman texting on an iPhone 17 Pro — (Image credit: Edward Berthelot / Getty Images)

Quick Summary

Apple is thought to be supporting end-to-end encryption in RCS messaging with iOS 26.5.

That will mean greater security for those messaging between iPhone and Android.

Apple is preparing to add end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging between iPhone and Android devices, so those messages will be as secure as native messages sent with iMessage or Google Messages.

Google in the meantime adopted RCS messaging, designed to be a universal messaging protocol that supported chat functions – and moved beyond the previous SMS system. But the two didn't play nice together.

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Support for RCS was long discussed between the two brands, but confirmation finally came in 2023 that it would be supported by Apple. The problem, however, was encryption, lacking the end-to-end encryption that native systems benefit from.

Now though, according to 9to5Google, that's coming with iOS 26.5, said to have appeared in beta form in the latest release candidate.

Why is encrypted RCS messaging important?

This is important, because it means that messaging using RCS between iPhone and Android will be encrypted, so only the sender and receiver will be able to read the message and no one else along the chain will be able to.

It was previously thought that this encryption would appear with iOS 26.3, but now it looks like it will finally arrive when iOS 26.5 drops.

The delay in supporting encryption is down to Apple using the default RCS profile up to this point, rather than using Google's encryption. The evolution of Universal Profile 3.0 from the GSMA has put the pieces in place so that Apple can deploy encryption using a universal standard, rather a proprietary Google solution.

For some parts of the world, the evolution of RCS messaging on iPhone came too late, with many phone owners choosing to use WhatsApp instead.

Even with this latest addition, iMessage users are still expected to see green bubbles when chatting with Android users.

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Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.