Apple has begun testing end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages in the developer beta of iOS 26.4, released on Monday. Apple announced plans to support this feature last year, and once fully available, iPhone and Android users will be able to send encrypted RCS messages to each other across platforms.
However, in this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. Apple says it has “not yet been able to test it on other platforms.” The company also has no plans to ship E2EE RCS messages with iOS 26.4. Apple says the feature will actually be made generally available in a “future update.”
RCS Messages greatly improves the texting experience between iPhone and Android devices, but cross-platform encryption has been a major omission. The GSM Association, which supports the development of RCS, announced in September 2024 that it was working on E2EE messages as part of the “next big milestone” for the RCS Universal Profile, and Apple announced in March 2025 that it would support E2EE RCS messages in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in a “future software update.”
