Apple begins testing end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages with the iOS 26.4 developer beta released Monday. Apple announced plans to support the feature last year, and once it’s fully available, it will allow iPhone and Android users to send encrypted RCS messages to each other across platforms.
However, with this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. “It can’t be tested on other platforms yet,” Apple says. The company also does not plan to ship E2EE RCS messages with iOS 26.4; the feature will indeed ship publicly in a “future update,” Apple says.
RCS messaging greatly improves the texting experience between iPhone and Android devices, but the big thing missing is cross-platform encryption. The GSM Association, which helps develop RCS, announced in September 2024 that it was working on E2EE messages as part of the “next major milestone” for the RCS Universal Profile, and Apple said in March 2025 that it would support E2EE RCS messages on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in “future software updates”.