Apple Is Finally Making Texting Between iPhone and Android Secure
Perhaps the best thing to happen to smartphones in the last five years was Apple’s decision to start supporting RCS. Since then, texting between iPhone and Android is no longer a texting nightmare: group chats work as they should, photos and videos can be sent in high quality, and you can even see when the other person is typing, thanks to Messages. are always green.
Although the experience is much better than before, it is not perfect. Some key features are still missing from RCS on iPhone. For example, you can’t unsend messages, reply to a thread, or edit iPhone messages. The latter can only happen on the Android side, while only iPhones can react with emojis at the moment. The biggest omission, however, is support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE). This is arguably the most important advantage of RCS over SMS. E2EE “scrambles” your messages, and only you and the recipient(s) have the “keys” to decipher them. If a hacker remotely accessed your messages from an untrusted device, they wouldn’t be able to read them: the only way to see these messages in plain text is to have access to the trusted device associated with them.
If you have an Android device and text with other Android devices using Google Messages, you probably benefit from this benefit. You may see a small padlock icon next to your messages when you send them, indicating that the text messages are sent with E2EE. iPhones have this advantage when texting other iPhones because iMessage is also E2EE. But when you send SMS from iPhone to Android, whether or not you use RCS or SMS, those messages are not protected by encryption, making you vulnerable to hacking.
End-to-end encryption support for RCS is available in iOS 26.4 beta
This is changing. Apple is currently testing E2EE support for RCS on iPhone. Plus, anyone can try it right now, as long as you accept the risks of beta software.
The change comes with the second beta version of iOS 26.4, released by Apple on Monday. Apple’s first beta for 26.4 added a first layer of support, but only for iPhones that text each other with iMessage disabled. The second beta now supports E2EE for RCS communications with Android devices. As long as your Android friends are using the latest version of Google Messages and you’re using the second beta of iOS 26.4, you can rest easy knowing that your messages are protected by end-to-end encryption.
What do you think of it so far?
However, that doesn’t mean that those of us waiting for the official iOS 26.4 release will benefit from the same. Although beta features are always subject to change, Apple explicitly states in its release notes that “This feature is not available in this release and will be available to customers in future versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26.” It appears the company has gotten a head start on testing in anticipation of a future iOS 26.4.1, iOS 26.5, or perhaps even an iOS 27 release.
Don’t install iOS 26.4 beta without knowing the risks
You’ll need to install the latest beta on your iPhone to try this encryption, but don’t do it without thinking. The beta software is currently being tested, which means there may be bugs and other instabilities that you’re not used to dealing with in iOS. If something goes wrong and you need to uninstall the beta, you’ll need to completely reset your iPhone. Unless you have a full backup of iOS 26.3 on your computer, you may lose data. As such, I never recommend installing beta versions on your primary device. It’s your choice, of course: you just need to understand the risks.
If you decide to try the beta, you’ll also have access to other new features in iOS 26.4, namely a new Apple Music experience with an AI playlist generator, a new design, and the ability to add songs to multiple playlists at once.
