{"id":239490,"date":"2026-05-05T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/ios-26-5-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:20:06","slug":"ios-26-5-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/ios-26-5-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 26.5 Finally Adds End-to-End Encrypted RCS Between iPhone, Android"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/me.pcmag.com\/en\/ios-1\/36937\/ios-265-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android\">iOS 26.5 Finally Adds End-to-End Encrypted RCS Between iPhone, Android<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/me.pcmag.com\/en\/ios-1\/36937\/ios-265-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android\">https:\/\/me.pcmag.com\/en\/ios-1\/36937\/ios-265-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-05 09:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"me.pcmag.com\">me.pcmag.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Apple began rolling out the release candidate of iOS 26.5 to testers on Monday, and it brings good news for those awaiting encrypted RCS messaging between Android and iPhone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnd-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time,\u201d Apple says in its release notes.<\/p>\n<p>\n    (Credit: Apple\/Jibin Joseph)\n<\/p>\n<p>The Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol offers a more modern messaging experience compared with traditional SMS. Features include support for high-resolution media, typing indicators, and delivery and read receipts. Apple added support for the protocol with iOS 18 in 2024, but it wasn\u2019t end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The GSMA, the body that maintains the RCS protocol, added support for E2EE last year. At launch, Apple said that it would add support on its platforms with \u201cfuture software updates.\u201d The iPhone maker has been testing E2EE on iOS 26 since the beginning of the year, and it finally appears ready to roll out the security feature to all users.<\/p>\n<p>Note that RCS messaging is a carrier-provided service, and only select carriers support it on iPhones. You can enable it from <strong>Settings<\/strong>  <strong>Apps<\/strong>  <strong>Messages<\/strong>  <strong>RCS Messaging<\/strong>. Per 9to5Google, once Apple adds support for E2EE, you\u2019ll see a toggle for <strong>End-to-End Encryption (Beta)<\/strong>. The feature will be enabled by default for RCS users, and you can confirm it&#8217;s active by looking for a lock icon with \u201cEncrypted\u201d displayed next to it in the chat interface.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"font-stretch-ultra-condensed mb-2 text-lg font-semibold uppercase\">Recommended by Our Editors<\/h3>\n<p>Since the iOS 26.5 RC was introduced this week, a stable iOS 26.5 release can be expected for all users next week. Other features teased with the test version include Pride Luminance wallpapers and an update to the Maps app that displays recommendations in Suggested Places based on what\u2019s trending nearby and your recent searches.<\/p>\n<p> &#8230;<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/me.pcmag.com\/en\/ios-1\/36937\/ios-265-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>iOS 26.5 Finally Adds End-to-End Encrypted RCS Between iPhone, Android https:\/\/me.pcmag.com\/en\/ios-1\/36937\/ios-265-finally-adds-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-between-iphone-android Publish Date: 2026-05-05 09:05:00&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":239491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.pcmag.com\/imagery\/articles\/052Tes6e4RIzkZVbDcXqFfT-1.fit_lim.size_1200x630.v1777971652.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[69,95,77,57],"class_list":["post-239490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-ios","tag-ios-18","tag-ios-26","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239493,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239490\/revisions\/239493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}