For years, texting between iPhones and Android phones felt weirdly outdated for something billions of people do every single day. You could send an encrypted iMessage to another iPhone just fine but the second an Android user entered the chat, it became a different story. Security dropped, features broke, and suddenly your “modern smartphone experience” felt stuck in 2011.
Now, Apple is changing that. With iOS 26.5, the iPhone maker has officially started rolling out encrypted RCS messaging between iPhones and Android devices, which is one of the biggest upgrades cross-platform texting has gotten in years.
The update adds end-to-end encrypted RCS chats inside Apple’s Messages app. That means Apple can’t read the messages, Google can’t read them, and carriers can’t read them while they’re being sent.
Users will start seeing a lock icon with an “Encrypted” label at the top of chats when talking to Android users on supported carriers. Note that Android users will need the newest version of Google Messages for it to work properly.
According to Apple, encryption will turn on automatically over time for both new and existing RCS conversations.
While encryption is the headline feature, RCS already brought a bunch of upgrades to cross-platform texting, including typing indicators, read receipts, higher-quality photos and videos, better group chats, and emoji reactions.
The green bubble war isn’t ending though
Apple may be improving the experience, but it’s definitely not abandoning the ecosystem divide. Messages sent to Android users still appear as green bubbles instead of the blue color for iMessages.
And the company continues to position iMessage as the premium experience for Apple users because of its deeper integration across the iPhone ecosystem.
So yes, texting Android users is becoming safer and better. But Apple is still making sure its users know they’re Android users.
This fixes a pretty wide privacy gap
For a long time, the “green bubble vs blue bubble” debate was mostly an internet joke. But underneath all the memes, there was a real issue, as cross-platform texting was way less secure.
Even after Apple adopted RCS in 2024 to improve messaging between iPhones and Android phones, encrypted messaging still was not included. So conversations between the two ecosystems were still missing protections that apps like WhatsApp and Signal normalized years ago.
Now, that gap is being closed.
There are other changes
Alongside encrypted RCS, the update also includes new wallpapers, updates across iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS, and a new ad system inside Apple Maps. According to the company, Maps may now show local ads based on your approximate location, search terms, and what part of the map you’re viewing.
If you are wondering, no, the advertising data is “not linked” to your Apple account.
Sources: The Verge, Eastern Herald