Encrypted RCS on 26.4

[codeman7]

Hello! I've got an iPhone 17 Pro on Visible running 26.4, not a beta or anything besides the latest release.

Occasionally lately when sending messages to someone on Android using Google Fi, my outgoing messages show up as encrypted. This seems to happen more often when I send a message from my Watch, or when I use a share sheet.

However, I've seen reports that this shouldn't be available? Is this an erroneous indicator, or something going wrong? It goes back and forth frequently so it's clearly not working all of the time.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Looks like maybe it's receiving encrypted but not sending?

This article still shows "Apple’s implementation of RCS is based on the industry’s standard. RCS messages aren’t end-to-end encrypted, which means they're not protected from a third-party reading them while they're sent between devices."

I haven't heard of anything changing on that, but possible.

 

[HouseLannister]

Were you on the 26.4 betas at the point this was being tested? If so, it might have inadvertently carried over to the GM. You could try turning RCS off and back on to see if that affects things. I wouldn't be concerned, but it might be lying about the encryption and that could be confusing.

 

[codeman7]

Looks like maybe it's receiving encrypted but not sending?

This article still shows "Apple’s implementation of RCS is based on the industry’s standard. RCS messages aren’t end-to-end encrypted, which means they're not protected from a third-party reading them while they're sent between devices."

I haven't heard of anything changing on that, but possible.

Nope, I haven't ever received one that says Encrypted, only messages that I send (as in this screenshot, my messages are green).

Were you on the 26.4 betas at the point this was being tested? If so, it might have inadvertently carried over to the GM. You could try turning RCS off and back on to see if that affects things. I wouldn't be concerned, but it might be lying about the encryption and that could be confusing.

Also nope, I haven't ever been on a 26 beta, and this iPhone has never been on anything but standard release updates of iOS 26 since I got it.