With the second iOS 26.4 beta, Apple and Google have began testing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages exchanged between iPhone and Android customers.

RCS Feature 1
Apple began testing E2EE for RCS within the first beta, however the characteristic was restricted to iPhone-to-iPhone communications with iMessage turned off. On this beta, ‌iPhone‌ customers can ship encrypted messages to Android customers.

‌iPhone‌ customers might want to set up the second beta of iOS 26.4 to change encrypted messages with Android customers, whereas Google customers must have the newest model of Google Messages.

In keeping with Apple’s developer launch notes for beta 2, whereas E2EE is being examined for ‌RCS‌, it is not going to ship in iOS 26.4 and can as an alternative come at a later date.

On this beta, RCS end-to-end encryption will change into obtainable for testing between Apple and Android gadgets. This characteristic is just not delivery on this launch and will likely be obtainable to clients in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26 releases. Finish-to-end encryption is in beta and isn’t obtainable for all gadgets or carriers. Conversations labeled as encrypted are encrypted end-to-end, so messages cannot be learn whereas they’re despatched between gadgets.

Apple labored with the GSM Affiliation to implement end-to-end encryption. iMessage, which is used for texts between iPhones, has lengthy supported end-to-end encryption. Android’s ‌RCS‌ implementation already has E2EE for Android-to-Android texts, however there isn’t any full encryption for iPhone-to-Android and Android-to-iPhone conversations on the present time.

E2EE is just not obtainable for all gadgets or all carriers throughout the beta testing interval.

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