Apple has released the iOS 26.5 release candidate build for developers, signalling that a public rollout is imminent within the next few days to a week. The update carries a notable addition that has been rumoured for some time and is now confirmed through the official changelog: iOS 26.5 will introduce support for end-to-end encryption in Rich Communication Services messaging within the native Messages application, marking a meaningful step forward in the security of cross-platform mobile communication.
Rich Communication Services, commonly referred to as RCS, is a messaging protocol that replaced the older Short Message Service standard and has been supported across Android devices for several years, offering features such as read receipts, typing indicators, high-resolution media sharing, and group messaging capabilities. Apple added RCS support to the iPhone through iOS 18 in 2024, enabling iPhones and Android devices to exchange messages using the protocol rather than falling back to plain text Short Message Service when communicating across platforms. However, the initial implementation lacked end-to-end encryption, which meant that while the feature set improved, the privacy protection available for iPhone-to-Android conversations remained significantly weaker than that offered by Apple’s own iMessage protocol, which has been end-to-end encrypted since its introduction.
The addition of end-to-end encryption to RCS messaging in iOS 26.5 closes that gap, at least partially. The encrypted RCS functionality will launch as a beta feature and will be dependent on carrier support, meaning the rollout will be uneven at launch and will not be immediately available to all users regardless of which network they are on. Apple has indicated that availability will expand gradually over time as carrier support broadens. Once fully available, the feature will allow iPhones to exchange RCS messages with Android devices in a manner that prevents third parties, including network carriers and platform intermediaries, from accessing the content of those conversations. The development is also significant in the broader context of messaging security, as it brings iPhone-to-Android communication closer to the level of privacy protection that has previously only been achievable when both parties were using iMessage or a dedicated end-to-end encrypted messaging application such as Signal or WhatsApp.
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