Apple and Google Begin Rolling Out End-to-End Encrypted RCS Between iPhones and Androids as iOS 26.5 Ships With Beta Support
On May 11, 2026 Apple shipped iOS 26.5 with beta support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging across iPhone and Android, the first large-scale interoperable encrypted messaging deployment between competing mobile platforms.
Overview
Apple released iOS 26.5 on May 11, 2026 with beta support for end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging between iPhone and Android, according to MacRumors. The same day, Google began the matching rollout in Google Messages, framing the launch as a joint effort. “Starting today, end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging begins rolling out in beta for iPhone users running iOS 26.5 with supported carriers and Android users on the latest version of Google Messages,” Google’s Elmar Weber, GM for Android and Business Communications, wrote on the company’s blog.
Apple’s own announcement put the same framing in stronger terms: “Apple and Google have led a cross-industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to Rich Communication Services (RCS), making the cross-platform messaging format that replaces traditional SMS more secure and private,” Apple wrote in its newsroom.
What We Know
The technical underpinning is the GSM Association’s RCS Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which adds end-to-end encryption based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, as reported by MacRumors. The GSMA published that specification on March 14, 2025, with Tom Van Pelt, the trade body’s Technical Director, framing it at the time as a way to apply MLS to a multi-provider messaging system. “The new specifications define how to apply MLS within the context of RCS. These procedures ensure that messages and other content such as files remain confidential and secure as they travel between clients,” Van Pelt said, as quoted by The Hacker News. The GSMA at the time described the rollout as a first: RCS would be the first “large-scale messaging service” to support interoperable end-to-end encryption between client implementations from different providers, The Hacker News reported.
Apple first committed to supporting that specification in March 2025, according to MacRumors. Testing of the cross-platform encrypted flow began in February 2026, with the public iOS 26.5 release this week landing roughly three months after that test phase started, 9to5Google reported. The same outlet noted that Apple originally added RCS support to iOS with iOS 18 in September 2024, meaning unencrypted iPhone-to-Android RCS has been in place for about twenty months before encryption arrived.
The rollout is gradual and carrier-gated. Both endpoints must use a carrier that supports the new protocol version, and Apple still labels the feature as beta in the iOS Messages settings, 9to5Mac reported. Apple’s own statement reads: “End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time,” as quoted by MacRumors. 9to5Mac lists 23 U.S. carriers supporting the feature at launch, including AT&T, Boost Mobile, C Spire, Cellcom Wisconsin, Consumer Cellular, Cox Mobile, Cricket, Family Mobile, FirstNet, Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, Nex-Tech Wireless, PureTalk, Red Pocket, Spectrum, Strata, T-Mobile, TracFone/Straight Talk, Ultra Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, Visible, and Xfinity Mobile, plus 12 Canadian carriers led by Bell, Rogers, and Telus, per the same 9to5Mac piece. Engadget’s recap highlighted the three U.S. majors specifically — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — as supporting the feature on day one, according to Engadget.
On user-visible behavior, both companies emphasized that the encryption is on by default and self-enabling: “Encryption is on by default and will be automatically enabled over time for new and existing RCS conversations,” Google wrote. Google Messages indicates an encrypted RCS chat with the same lock icon it previously used for Android-to-Android encrypted chats, Google said in the same post. On iPhone, encrypted threads show a small lock symbol in the Messages app and “match the end-to-end encryption protections of iMessage,” MacRumors reported. The setting appears under Settings > Messages > RCS Messaging as an “End-to-End Encryption (Beta)” toggle, as detailed by 9to5Mac.
The encryption applies only to cross-platform conversations. iPhone-to-iPhone chats continue to route through iMessage, and Apple used the May 11 announcement to restate that hierarchy: “iMessage was built with privacy in mind and has always been end-to-end encrypted. It remains the best way to communicate between Apple devices,” Apple wrote. On the Android side, Google noted that “Google Messages has had end-to-end encrypted messaging between Android devices for years,” in its blog post. The new milestone is the cross-platform link, not encryption within either ecosystem.
iOS 26.5 carries more than encryption changes. Apple’s release fixes more than 50 security issues on iPhone, according to 9to5Mac, and adds a “Suggested Places” feature to Maps that recommends locations based on a user’s recent searches and approximate location, MacRumors reported. The same release lays the foundation for advertising in Apple Maps later in the summer, with Apple disclosing that “Maps may show local ads based on your approximate location, current search terms, or view of the map while you search,” as quoted by 9to5Mac. Apple also shipped a new Pride Luminance wallpaper as part of its 2026 Pride collection, according to MacRumors. Engadget noted that iPadOS 26.5, macOS Tahoe 26.5, and watchOS 26.5 shipped alongside the iPhone release, per Engadget.
What We Don’t Know
The pace of carrier enablement outside North America is not yet public. Apple’s own statement says only that the feature will “roll out over time,” as quoted by MacRumors, and neither company has published a timeline for moving the feature out of beta. The 9to5Mac carrier list covers the U.S. and Canada and points readers to Apple’s support page for current listings in Europe and Asia-Pacific, 9to5Mac noted, without specifying foreign-carrier counts at launch.
Metadata exposure also remains underspecified in public statements. Apple and Google have said only that messages “can’t be read while they’re sent between devices,” per Google’s announcement, without detailing what carriers continue to observe about message sender, recipient, timing, or size — questions that have long surrounded RCS because the routing infrastructure remains carrier-mediated rather than entirely server-side as with iMessage.
Finally, the operational behavior of the MLS group-state machinery across carriers — how key rotations, device additions, and group changes are coordinated in a multi-provider deployment — has not been described publicly beyond the Universal Profile 3.0 specification itself, which The Hacker News covered at publication in March 2025. The first months of beta use across heterogeneous carrier networks will be the practical test of whether the GSMA’s interoperability claim holds up under real-world fragmentation.