Apple has resolved the issue nearly eighteen months after the FBI advised Americans to cease messaging between their iPhone and Android phones. For the first time, encrypted cross-platform messaging should be available with iOS 26.5 this week. However, Apple cautions that this “is not available to all.”
This availability impacts both carriers, which impacts even iPhones with the update, and devices, implying that not all iPhones will be able to transmit completely encrypted RCS messages. And the more significant problem is this second kind of availability.
WhatsApp messages are always encrypted from beginning to end. This is due to WhatsApp’s control over every “end” of the conversation. Every message is secure thanks to the clients (apps). That encryption is unbreakable.
The infamous blue bubbles appear when you send an iMessage to other Apple users. Each and every iMessage is completely encrypted. There is no other mechanism for it to deliver messages. The bubble is green and it is obvious that this is a text or RCS communication if one “end” of the conversation is not utilising iMessage on an Apple device.
It’s more complicated with Google Messages. RCS messages are completely encrypted if all “ends” are using the most recent version of Google Messages. However, when that encryption isn’t active, it’s less obvious. Users must verify.
With the latest update, that is even more severe. The implementation of fully encrypted RCS by Apple and Google depends on carriers rather than apps. The iMessage or Google Messages envelope does not apply the encryption; it is included into the protocol. Depending on which networks the phones are connected to at the moment, an RCS chat between an Android and iPhone user may be end-to-end encrypted or not.
Before the new iOS version goes live, Apple states in its most recent release notes that “end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time.” When it becomes accessible, this information should be available on the Apple messaging website.
All of this implies that consumers of Apple and Google will remain more secure when utilising their own walled gardens when fully encrypted RCS texting launches perhaps next week. or when utilising Signal or WhatsApp. That won’t alter.
Expectations remain that Apple will release iOS 26.5 with end-to-end encrypted RCS communications this week, most likely early in the week, as we approach May 11 and the start of the week.
According to Geeky Gadget:
“Apple’s iOS 26.5 is expected to land today or tomorrow, introducing a range of updates aimed at improving device performance, battery efficiency, and overall system stability.”
The scope of the communications update will become increasingly important as it approaches, and other updates are anticipated in the near future. Additionally, this is a worldwide upgrade, where RCS is more important than in the United States, where iPhone messaging continues to rule and WhatsApp is rapidly growing as a cross-platform substitute.
Per Germany’s Born City:
“With the update to iOS 26.5 in mid-May and the subsequent iOS 27 in June, Apple wants to close several development sites: the years of criticism of the closed-off iMessage system, the growing demand for AI-supported functions and the pressure from the regulatory authorities.”
