While you’re arguing whose phone is better, Apple and Google have quietly encrypted your emails.
Apple has added to the iPhone a feature that Android owners have been waiting for many years. Now the messages between devices on iOS and Android can be protected by end-to-end encryption so that the correspondence can not be read by outsiders during data transmission.
Support for protection appeared in iOS 26.5 for the RCS service, which is gradually replacing ordinary SMS. The new feature is already available to iPhone owners with supported telecom operators and Android users with the latest version of the Google Messages app. Encryption is automatically enabled both in new chats and in existing correspondence.
RCS is considered a modern standard for messaging via the Internet. The protocol supports sending photos and videos of high quality, shows the typing by the interlocutor and notifies about the reading of the messages. Such opportunities have long been familiar to messengers, but in ordinary SMS were absent.
Apple said that when using end-to-end encryption, it is impossible to read during transmission between devices. Protected chats are marked with a new lock icon.
Apple began testing the feature in the beta version of iOS and iPadOS 26.4. At the first stage, the defense worked only in correspondence between Apple devices. In early 2025, the GSMA Association, which is responsible for the development of the RCS standard, officially announced support for end-to-end encryption for the protocol.
Google also confirmed the launch of the feature. In the Google Messages application, secure correspondence between Android and iPhone is marked with a lock icon. The GSMA said that the feature appeared thanks to the joint work of Apple, Google and other mobile industry participants. According to the company, protected messages work on the basis of an open international standard.
Apple has added to the iPhone a feature that Android owners have been waiting for many years. Now the messages between devices on iOS and Android can be protected by end-to-end encryption so that the correspondence can not be read by outsiders during data transmission.
Support for protection appeared in iOS 26.5 for the RCS service, which is gradually replacing ordinary SMS. The new feature is already available to iPhone owners with supported telecom operators and Android users with the latest version of the Google Messages app. Encryption is automatically enabled both in new chats and in existing correspondence.
RCS is considered a modern standard for messaging via the Internet. The protocol supports sending photos and videos of high quality, shows the typing by the interlocutor and notifies about the reading of the messages. Such opportunities have long been familiar to messengers, but in ordinary SMS were absent.
Apple said that when using end-to-end encryption, it is impossible to read during transmission between devices. Protected chats are marked with a new lock icon.
Apple began testing the feature in the beta version of iOS and iPadOS 26.4. At the first stage, the defense worked only in correspondence between Apple devices. In early 2025, the GSMA Association, which is responsible for the development of the RCS standard, officially announced support for end-to-end encryption for the protocol.
Google also confirmed the launch of the feature. In the Google Messages application, secure correspondence between Android and iPhone is marked with a lock icon. The GSMA said that the feature appeared thanks to the joint work of Apple, Google and other mobile industry participants. According to the company, protected messages work on the basis of an open international standard.
