Apple finally secures iPhone-to-Android chats with end-to-end encryption rollout in iOS 26.5: here’s what it means

Apple and Google have finally announced that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is coming to Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages sent between Android and iPhones. Notably, Apple had first rolled out RCS support for iPhones with iOS 18 which brought features like Typing Indicators, read receipts and high resolution photo and video transfer but E2E encryption was not available for these messages then.

“Apple and Google have led a cross-industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to Rich Communication Services (RCS), making the cross-platform messaging format that replaces traditional SMS more secure and private.” the two companies announced in a blogpost