I’ve waited years for Apple to fix iPhone-to-Android texting, and it’s finally happening

What you need to know

Apple and Google are finally bringing end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging to iPhone and Android chats with the iOS 26.5 beta.
The new encryption system is built directly into the GSMA’s RCS Universal Profile instead of relying on Google’s old proprietary solution.
If both users have the latest software and a supported carrier, encrypted RCS should work automatically with no complicated setup.

After years of keeping their encrypted walls high, Apple and Google are finally letting iPhone and Android users talk to each other without leaving their privacy at the door.

Apple is beta-testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging. It is the central feature of the new iOS 26.5 update, and it’s the first time these two ecosystems have gotten along on security standards. This is the fix you’ve been waiting for if you’ve ever felt a little uneasy sending sensitive info to a friend on the other side of the smartphone divide.

For the uninitiated, iMessage has always been encrypted, but only when you were texting to another iPhone. As soon as an Android user joined the chat, it defaulted to SMS or basic RCS, which is basically open postcards that anyone with the right tools can read. Years ago, Google tried to push its own encryption for RCS, but it was a proprietary layer that Apple wouldn’t adopt.

Major carriers are already on board

There aren’t a lot of hoops to jump through to get this working. If you are running the iOS 26.5 beta and your Android friend is using the latest version of Google Messages, the encryption should just work. Just make sure you’re on a supported carrier as major players like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in the U.S., and Rogers, Bell and Telus in Canada are already on board.

You can see a little lock logo in the chat thread to confirm the…

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