Apple starts testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messages on iPhone

Apple begins testing end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messages with the developer beta of iOS 26.4 released Monday. Apple announced plans to support this feature last year, and once fully available, it will allow iPhone and Android users to send encrypted RCS messages to each other across all platforms.

However, with this initial implementation, Apple is only testing RCS encryption between Apple devices. It is “not yet testable with other platforms,” Apple says. The company also doesn’t plan to send E2EE RCS messages with iOS 26.4; the feature will actually be publicly available in a “future update,” Apple says.

RCS Messages greatly improves the texting experience between iPhone and Android devices, but cross-platform encryption is greatly lacking. The GSM Association, which helps develop RCS, announced in September 2024 that it was working on E2EE messages as the “next major step” 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.”