Messaging between blue and green bubbles is getting safer. With the discharge of iOS 26.5, end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging will begin rolling out in beta for iPhone owners and Android phone customers with the most recent model of Google Messages, in line with a post from Apple on Monday.
Finish-to-end encryption protects a message’s privateness and safety when it is being despatched from one system to a different. Apple and Google have lengthy supplied encrypted messaging inside iMessage and Google Messages, respectively. However this sort of encryption did not work for RCS and SMS messages despatched between iOS and Android till now.
The function will steadily roll out to iPhone and Android customers over the approaching months.
For years, there’s been a “blue versus inexperienced bubble” divide between iPhone and Android homeowners. This ranged from Android customers being teased for his or her inexperienced bubbles breaking iMessage group threads to changing into a significant social stigma, with individuals being bullied for not having an iPhone.
In 2024, Apple added help for Rich Communication Services, or RCS, to the iPhone with the discharge of iOS 18, bringing some parity between iMessage and Google Messages however missing end-to-end encryption throughout the 2 platforms.
It is important that Apple and Google are working collectively to convey end-to-end encryption to the GSMA’s RCS Common Profile.
Cross-platform RCS chats will probably be encrypted for iPhone customers on iOS 26.5 and Android customers on the most recent model of Google Messages with supported carriers. There will be a lock icon on the chat indicating that the dialog is encrypted — one thing RCS Google Messages already has. The lock may even seem in iMessage-only threads (blue bubbles) to point they’re encrypted.
As iMessage and Google Messages’ end-to-end encryption reaches all customers, it’ll robotically apply to new and present RCS conversations.
Watch this: Learn how to Allow RCS on iPhone
