Apple’s next update may finally bring secure Android RCS chats

Apple introduced cross-platform RCS support in its Messages app a few years back. While this definitely made the experience of texting with someone with an Android, and vice versa, far superior, there was a huge problem: these chats don’t support end-to-end encryption. However, the next major Apple update will reportedly fix this problem.

The Release Candidate for iOS 26.5 indicates that this change is coming alongside:

• End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time.
• Pride Luminance wallpaper that dynamically refracts a spectrum of colours is available for download.
• Suggested Places in Maps displays recommendations based on what’s trending nearby and your recent searches

However, cross-platform E2EE support for RCS will only work with limited carriers at the start. This isn’t shocking. When RCS initially launched on iMessage, it wasn’t available for all users in Canada. Despite RCS on iMessage being released back in 2023, it wasn’t available for Canadian users until the iOS 18 beta 3 for some Canadian carriers.

Android Police suggests that E2EE support for RCS is coming via Universal Profile 3.0 standard, which also comes along with better spam detection and enhanced interactions with chatbots, but it’s not clear if this is the update.

Source: Android Police