{"id":242551,"date":"2026-01-13T16:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242551\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:58:11","slug":"ios-26-3-beta-2-hints-at-upcoming-end-to-end-encryption-for-rcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242551\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 26.3 beta 2 hints at upcoming end-to-end encryption for RCS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iphone-android-rcs-2_2751d8.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Apple RCS bubbles\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Last March, <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/03\/14\/end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-messaging-on-iphone\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple announced<\/a> plans to support end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages, following the standardization of the feature by the GSM Association. After nearly a year of silence on that front, today\u2019s betas suggest that Apple is moving closer to rolling it out.<\/p>\n<p>Feature is mandatory, except where prohibited by local regulations<\/p>\n<p>As spotted by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TiinoX83\/status\/2010830920681427199\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tiino-X83 on X<\/a>, iOS 26.3 beta 2 contains references to a new carrier bundle setting that would allow carriers to enable or disable E2EE for RCS messages.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Tiino-X83 also noted that \u201conly the four main French carriers (Bouygues, Orange, SFR and Free) have this line of code,\u201d and that \u201cno other carrier, regardless of the country\u201d he checked, had it.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">Par contre, c\u2019est tr\u00e8s bizarre, seuls les quatre principaux op\u00e9rateurs fran\u00e7ais (Bouygues, Orange, SFR et Free) ont cette ligne de code ! <\/p>\n<p>Aucun autre op\u00e9rateur, quel que soit le pays que j\u2019ai regard\u00e9, n\u2019a cette ligne de code \ud83e\uddd0<\/p>\n<p>Poke <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aaronp613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@aaronp613<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tiino-X83 (@TiinoX83) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TiinoX83\/status\/2010830924645109825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the GSMA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RCC.71-v3.0.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">documentation<\/a> states that RCS clients\u00a0must enable E2EE by default, this default can be restricted by local regulations:<\/p>\n<p>R5-43-1 RCS clients shall enable E2EE by default unless expressly prohibited by local regulations.<\/p>\n<p>R5-43-1-1 The RCS client provider shall enable or disable E2EE for all their users in a market of operation.<\/p>\n<p>R5-43-1-2 The RCS client provider shall not enable or disable E2EE for a subset of users, or for individual users in a market of operation.<\/p>\n<p>R5-43-1-3 If E2EE is disabled, the user shall be informed that E2EE is not available in their market of operation. R5-43-2 All User Initiated Content shall be end-to-end encrypted, excluding \u201cIs Typing\u201d Notifications<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, if E2EE is active, the GSMA standard\u00a0requires that the user be able to see the encryption status. The carrier bundle setting discovered in the iOS 26.3 beta could serve as a toggle for these requirements.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth noting that it is not yet guaranteed that the feature will arrive with iOS 26.3, as Apple could just be laying the groundwork for a future iOS version that will enable it.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the fact that the code is now there suggests that support could land sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>Accessory deals on Amazon<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/9to5mac.com\" aria-label=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757113987_717_google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757113987_373_google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/about\/#affiliate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4brHwnp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1034676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768323491_185_970-x-250-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"970\" height=\"250\"\/><\/a>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last March, Apple announced plans to support end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages, following the standardization of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-242551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}