{"id":412431,"date":"2026-05-05T06:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/412431\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T06:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:01:15","slug":"encrypted-rcs-between-android-iphone-launching-with-ios-26-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/412431\/","title":{"rendered":"Encrypted RCS between Android, iPhone launching with iOS 26.5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RCS-on-Android-and-iPhone-1.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>With the upcoming launch of iOS 26.5, Apple will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging between the iPhone and Google Messages on Android.<\/p>\n<p>Apple today made available the <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2026\/05\/04\/apple-highlights-3-enhancements-coming-to-iphone-with-ios-26-5\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">release candidate<\/a> of iOS 26.5 to developers and public testers. The changelog has the following entry: \u201cEnd-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This capability has been in testing <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/2026\/02\/23\/google-messages-encrypted-rcs-iphone\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since February<\/a>. Part of the RCS Universal Profile from the GSMA, messages between Android and iOS users cannot be read by anyone else as they are sent between phones.<\/p>\n<p>Once available, the iPhone Messages app will display \u201cText Message \u00b7 RCS | [lock icon] Encrypted\u201d at the center of conversations with Android users.<\/p>\n<p>\tAdvertisement &#8211; scroll for more content<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\"  alt=\"\" data-height=\"734\" data-id=\"713772\" data-link=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/?attachment_id=713772\" data-url=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Android-iPhone-encrypted-RCS-1.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" data-width=\"1125\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Android-iPhone-encrypted-RCS-1.jpg\" data-amp-layout=\"responsive\"\/><\/p>\n<p>On Google Messages, it will be the same lock icon, just like conversations with Android users.<\/p>\n<p>Go to iOS Settings &gt; Messages &gt; RCS Messaging and make sure \u201cEnd-to-End Encryption (Beta)\u201d is enabled. (It is toggled on by default.) Android phones must be running the latest version of Google Messages.<\/p>\n<p>iOS 26.5 is expected to launch in the next week or so.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/9to5google.com\" aria-label=\"Add 9to5Google 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\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Google 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\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Google 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the upcoming launch of iOS 26.5, Apple will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging between the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-412431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}