Apple's next big iPhone update will add a major privacy feature for Android users. What to expect as iOS 26.5 release date nears

"Apple's iMessage protocol has long had end-to-end encryption for texts sent between Apple devices. But for texts sent between Android phones and iPhones, encryption has always been absent. And that wasn't the fault of Apple or Android maker Google. It's because, for years, the messages sent between the platforms were standard SMS, which lacked modern features such as read receipts and, more importantly, end-to-end encryption."

"Back in iOS 18, Apple added support for a new kind of text message protocol, called Rich Communication Service-better known by its acronym, RCS. This new RCS protocol brought read receipts, typing indicators, and more to standard text messages, greatly improving interactivity in messaging between iPhone and Android devices. Unfortunately, the way the RCS protocol has been implemented on iOS since then has meant that one of the protocol's core benefits-end-to-end encryption-has not been adopted."

"But with iOS 26.5, that changes. Now, provided your carrier supports end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging, RCS texts sent between iPhones and Android devices on the same network will be unreadable to anyone but the sender and receiver-even Apple and your cellular service provider."

"In the iOS 26.5 beta release notes, Apple states that new end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging will be in beta and work with "supported carriers" and "roll out over time." The company points users to this support document, which lists which carriers support RCS messagi"

iMessage already provides end-to-end encryption between Apple devices, but cross-platform texting between Android and iPhone has lacked encryption because it relied on standard SMS. iOS 18 added RCS support to bring modern messaging features such as read receipts and typing indicators to iPhone-to-Android conversations. However, the iOS RCS implementation did not include end-to-end encryption, leaving a major gap. iOS 26.5 changes this by enabling end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging between iPhones and Android devices on the same network when carriers support it. In that case, only the sender and receiver can read the messages, including Apple and the cellular provider.

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