Apple moves closer to encrypted RCS for Android-iPhone messaging

iPhone-Android text messaging is long overdue for a security upgrade: End-to-end encryption (E2EE). Apple finally began testing end-to-end encryption in iOS 26.4 developer beta, but restricted it to iPhone-to-iPhone conversations only. iOS 26.4 beta 2 expanded it to Android conversations, but the stable release didn’t ship with the feature. With the latest iOS 26.5 developer beta, Android users can once again join in.

The latest iOS 26.5 developer beta once again includes a toggle for end-to-end encryption in the Messages’ settings submenu, as reported by 9to5Mac. This toggle is said to be enabled by default and remains active for conversations with Android users as well.

With this in place, RCS conversations between iPhone and Android users are finally encrypted by default, meaning they cannot be intercepted and read by any third party.

Even though Apple began testing E2EE in iOS 26.4 developer beta, the company had already mentioned in the release notes that RCS E2EE would not be released to the public with iOS 26.4’s stable release and would come in a future iOS 26 release.

As expected, the feature is absent from the iOS 26.4 stable release currently available on iPhones.

iOS 26.5 beta gives us renewed hope that this long-awaited change is finally on the horizon for the stable branch. However, there’s always the possibility that Apple will defer the feature to even later versions.