iOS 26.4 Beta Is Testing One Of Android’s Best RCS Features

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After years of back and forth about blue bubbles and green bubbles, Apple finally addressed the need for better text messaging services between Android and iPhones with the introduction of RCS (rich communication services). Despite finally bridging that gap, RCS on iPhone has been missing one key feature that Android users have enjoyed for years: end-to-end encryption. Luckily, it seems Apple has finally received the memo and is doing something about it.

In a new release of iOS 26.4 beta, Apple has finally started testing encrypted RCS chats. However, there are a few catches. Just like when Apple originally introduced RCS in iOS 18 beta 2, the company is taking things a little slow before rolling out the feature fully. In fact, Apple says that encrypted RCS messaging isn’t coming out with the next release of iOS 26, and that during its testing, it won’t be compatible with all carriers or outside of Apple devices — which means we won’t see RCS conversations between Android and Apple devices supporting end-to-end encryption just yet.

The company hasn’t shared any details on when it expects to launch encrypted RCS to the majority of iOS users, though it sounds like it will take some carrier implementation to pull off, which was also needed to even get RCS messaging working across carriers before. It is also worth noting that the new RCS features are being integrated into iPadOS and macOS as well.

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