iOS 26.4 Beta Adds End-to-End Encryption for iPhone-to-Android RCS Texts
With the second iOS 26.4 beta, Apple and Google have started testing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages exchanged between iPhone and Android users.
Apple started testing E2EE for RCS in the first beta, but the feature was limited to iPhone-to-iPhone communications with iMessage turned off. In this beta, iPhone users can send encrypted messages to Android users.
iPhone users will need to install the second beta of iOS 26.4 to exchange encrypted messages with Android users, while Google users need to have the latest version of Google Messages.
According to Apple's developer release notes for beta 2, while E2EE is being tested for RCS, it isn't going to ship in iOS 26.4 and will instead come at a later date.
In this beta, RCS end-to-end encryption will become available for testing between Apple and Android devices. This feature is not shipping in this release and will be available to customers in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26 releases. End-to-end encryption is in beta and is not available for all devices or carriers. Conversations labeled as encrypted are encrypted end-to-end, so messages can't be read while they're sent between devices.
Apple worked with the GSM Association to implement end-to-end encryption. iMessage, which is used for texts between iPhones, has long supported end-to-end encryption. Android's RCS implementation already has E2EE for Android-to-Android texts, but there is no full encryption for iPhone-to-Android and Android-to-iPhone conversations at the current time.
E2EE is not available for all devices or all carriers during the beta testing period.
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