iOS 26.5 Brings End-to-End Encryption to iPhone-Android RCS Messages

[bluecoast]

Meanwhile the rest of the world moved on to messaging apps that just work. Like WhatsApp.

I’m not particularly a fan of WhatsApp or Meta. But it just works on any phone and any carrier. And it’s the default messaging app in huge parts of the world.

I just don’t understand why Apple Messages is still relevant.

To the best of my knowledge, it's only really in the USA that iMessage is a dominant force in messaging.

As you say, for most of the rest of the world (excluding China), WhatsApp is the lingua franca of messaging.

As to why iMessage is discussed on the internet so much, when most of the world doesn't care a less about it - sites like this, Reddit etc. are all based in the USA and with (presumably) the majority of its users being in the USA.

Ditto Apple's quips about 'green bubble friends' at WWDC are only relevant in the USA. No one else cares.

Personally, I really dislike Meta and hate having to use WhatsApp.

So I'd much rather e2ee RCS (plus all of the modern messaging niceties) be something that's seamless in Apple Messages, as I'm probably not going to be able to get my mother to use Signal...

 

[aroom]

Vodafone UK?

Nope. Any carrier in Switzerland

 

[31 Flavas]

LOL why? Because of the ads on Maps? This won’t go away anytime soon and you need to update your phone at some point with upcoming security flaws.

Tell that to the iOS 6 forever crowd…. They _really_ like their pinstripes, green felt, and skeuomorphism.

 

[EugW]

To the best of my knowledge, it's only really in the USA that iMessage is a dominant force in messaging.

As you say, for most of the rest of the world (excluding China), WhatsApp is the lingua franca of messaging.

For example:

RCS’ acceptance dramatically increased after Apple adopted it in 2024, and projections have RCS use significantly increasing going forward.

 

[foobarbaz]

For example:

RCS’ acceptance dramatically increased after Apple adopted it in 2024, and projections have RCS use significantly increasing going forward.

Could you please link to the source of that data? It's interesting

 

[EugW]

Could you please link to the source of that data? It's interesting

Most popular messaging apps by country

Messaging app penetration rates: The most definitive and accurate list of messaging app usage in countries across the globe.

www.infobip.com

Note that this is not comparing numbers of messages sent but penetration of usage by users.

So for example if out of 10 users had 5 using WhatsApp to send 20 messages but 7 using RCS to send 20 messages, as I understand it, the numbers would be 70% RCS and 50% WhatsApp.

 

[GM…]

For example:

RCS’ acceptance dramatically increased after Apple adopted it in 2024, and projections have RCS use significantly increasing going forward.

Yes. With Apple adding support, it became a meaningful improvement on SMS. I was able to send RCS messages to most of my Android contacts without any action required from them.

 

[31 Flavas]

RCS is a cheap knock off of features Apple had for years. iMessage will always be known as the gold standard that kicked off this whole messaging platform race. Also, nobody should use anything owned by Meta. If you believe those messages are safe, I have a bridge to sell you.

That’s entirely a lie. BBM (Blackberry Messages) were the “gold standard” for messaging / “texting” back in the 2000’s pre-dating even the original iPhone itself. In fact, iMessage(s) didn’t even exist until 2011, iOS 5! By that time AOL Instant Messages, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, Windows Live Messages (MSN), even WhatsApp all predated — as literal official iOS Apps in the App Store — years before Apple’s iMessage functionality was introduced.

Granted, iMessage introduced differentiating features, such as high quality (text) images, message encryption, and multi-device message synchronization, and of course zero configuration / zero download / zero login needed.

But, in noway did iMessage “kick off” the ‘whole messaging platform race’. Nor was it in anyway the “gold standard” when it finally did launch. Rather it was super late by like 3-5+ years late depending on where you draw the starting line.

iMessage(s) did take over messaging in the U.S. because of the high popularity of the iPhone and seem-less integration with text messaging use — but, as has been mentioned, yea — due to the late start of iMessage, limited availability of iPhone outside of the U.S., and where it was available it’s high price, WhatsApp tookover and became “The gold standard” for rest of the world since Android phones were far more affordable and iMessage wasn’t cross platform compatible.

 

[bluecoast]

For example:

RCS’ acceptance dramatically increased after Apple adopted it in 2024, and projections have RCS use significantly increasing going forward.

Fair enough.

I'm only going on my subjective experience in the UK, where:

- No one I know who is non techy even knows what RCS is, nor have they heard of it.
- And I've never ever seen a multi user iMessage conversation - but I've seen dozens and dozens of WhatsApp ones.

 

[EugW]

Fair enough.

I'm only going on my subjective experience in the UK, where:

- No one I know who is non techy even knows what RCS is, nor have they heard of it.
- And I've never ever seen a multi user iMessage conversation - but I've seen dozens and dozens of WhatsApp ones.

Well, I’m in Canada and most of my group chats are actually iMessage. Some are RCS and some are SMS. The same goes for my individual conversations. Messages on iOS makes this very simple since it’s all in the same app. It should be noted that most of the people I’m chatting with using RCS (both groups and individuals) don’t know what RCS is. Its usage is automatic for them.

On WhatsApp I have exactly one active conversation, which is a group chat.

However, I will admit though that handling of SMS in Messages for large group chats isn’t great, since SMS was never designed for group chats in the first place.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

That's not correct. How do you think that could work? I have a small business with an android business phone associated with a business line and I have RCS enabled on it as well as my other android phone. No extra charges ever.

RCS has been implemented in Android for several years now but it is carrier dependent and while Apple has been asked for those many years to get on board, only now have they decided to.

Any android can enable RCS, all the way back to 5.0, and I think Android is on version 16 now, so pretty much all android phones can enable/disable it.

Edit: A quick search came back with this:

As of 2026, all major US carriers—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon—support RCS (Rich Communication Services) on both Android and iPhones running iOS 18+. Other supporters include US Cellular, Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, Metro by T-Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, and Visible, providing broad, industry-wide adoption.

Are you an SMS/RCS provider sending thousands/millions of messages per day? If not, you should look into whether or not business SMS/RCS providers charge more for RCS than SMS. (They do)

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Many of us have already deleted the maps app. Waze for the win.

Waze ads are back in the United States!

Greetings USA Wazers! We’re happy to announce that Waze’s new ads experience is now open to 100% of users in the United States. The Waze Ads Platform is fully integrated with the Google Ads campaign platform. The ad pins will be matched to Waze venues which are linked to Google Places in the...

www.waze.com

Yeah, I can see why people are so upset that it took Apple to catch up to where Waze is.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Meanwhile the rest of the world moved on to messaging apps that just work. Like WhatsApp.

I’m not particularly a fan of WhatsApp or Meta. But it just works on any phone and any carrier. And it’s the default messaging app in huge parts of the world.

I just don’t understand why Apple Messages is still relevant.

RCS in its current state exists due to the greed of carriers and the desperation of Google. The former killed it, and the latter dragged the corpse over the bodies of all the other messaging platforms they killed in the past. Put it like that, it’s easy to see why Google wanted it, they’re used to dealing with doomed messaging platforms. 🙂

 

[Unregistered 4U]

View attachment 2627490
View attachment 2627491
View attachment 2627493
View attachment 2627494
View attachment 2627492

Any messaging usage percentage that doesn’t include SMS can’t be considered anywhere near accurate.
Plus “Over one hundred percent of people are using messaging!” More than everyone is… ok 😉

 

[EugW]

Any messaging usage percentage that doesn’t include SMS can’t be considered anywhere near accurate.
Plus “Over one hundred percent of people are using messaging!” More than everyone is… ok 😉

? People use more than one messaging application. If 100/100 users use iMessage and those same 100/100 users also use WhatsApp, then the penetration for both iMessage and WhatsApp in that population is 100% respectively.

 

[Ct applefan]

Waze ads are back in the United States!

Greetings USA Wazers! We’re happy to announce that Waze’s new ads experience is now open to 100% of users in the United States. The Waze Ads Platform is fully integrated with the Google Ads campaign platform. The ad pins will be matched to Waze venues which are linked to Google Places in the...

www.waze.com

Yeah, I can see why people are so upset that it took Apple to catch up to where Waze is.

I’ve never seen an ad on Waze. Besides it a far better app than Apple Maps

 

[GM…]

Any messaging usage percentage that doesn’t include SMS can’t be considered anywhere near accurate.
Plus “Over one hundred percent of people are using messaging!” More than everyone is… ok 😉

"The percentage penetration rates in this report indicate the proportion of phone users in each country that can be reached on a particular app i.e. they have the app installed and are active users... If we assume that all mobile phones can receive conventional text messages (SMS) then the penetration rate for SMS would be 100% in all countries."

Research: The most popular messaging apps by country

 

[GM…]

Yes, Visible fully supports RCS encryption.

Is it working for you?

 

[GM…]

That’s assuming that there’s a single carrier interested in supporting either of those for free.

We will not know until Apple and Google decide to add support.

 

[Err4OH4]

Is it working for you?

Not on iOS but Visible fully supports it for Android. This is likely due to it still being a beta feature on iOS 26.5 RC.

Plus Google Messages itself hasn't fully rolled out Universal Profile 3.0 for Android, which is what Apple is using on iOS. Universal Profile 3.0 only available on the beta version of Google Messages and is still a staggered rollout for Android users.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

...

Instagram will remove end-to-end encryption for direct messages between users from May 8, 2026. When the date comes around, Meta will potentially be able to see the contents of all messages between users on the social media platform.

 

[dba415]

The best way to reach someone is SMS. It always was and always will be.

If you want more than SMS, the best way to reach someone is WhatsApp. Has been for many years, will continue to be.

It’s a solved problem.

A lot of people don't want to use a Zuck app but still want more than SMS. Sorry that's just how it is.

 

[Lunarman25]

Not supported by my carrier in the UK. I’ll stick to WhatsApp

 

[TimFL1]

Anyone know if T-Mobile will support this encryption? I know that they’ve supported RCS for a long time because most of my Android using friends and family are on T-Mobile.

Chances are good, since E2EE is opt-out on iOS (it‘s enabled by default) and it‘s not single carriers who decide whether they support it or not. The GSMA specifies that E2EE has to be decided on per region, so it‘s all or nothing (e.g. either your country blocks e2ee or everyone supporting RCS has to support it).

Since not a single carrier exists with their own RCS infrastructure (they all piggyback / made deals with Jibe as their backend), E2EE should just work instantly for every carrier (disclaimer: I have yet to get it to work talking to Android friends, so there still seem to be quirks).

Well, I’m in Canada and most of my group chats are actually iMessage. Some are RCS and some are SMS. The same goes for my individual conversations. Messages on iOS makes this very simple since it’s all in the same app. It should be noted that most of the people I’m chatting with using RCS (both groups and individuals) don’t know what RCS is. Its usage is automatic for them.

On WhatsApp I have exactly one active conversation, which is a group chat.

However, I will admit though that handling of SMS in Messages for large group chats isn’t great, since SMS was never designed for group chats in the first place.

You mean Group MMS. SMS is inherently not group chat capable (only mass SMS, e.g. you send a 1:1 SMS to each contact).

I just wish iOS would properly separate RCS groups from MMS groups… I‘m one bad connection blip away usually from incurring charges and creating duplicate MMS groups for my Android friends, since Apple doesn‘t care and up- and downgrades group chats instead of holding messages until you‘re online again (the send as text message fallback toggle does nothing for this when you lose RCS connection while typing, the chat input goes to MMS/SMS and you‘re having a bad day without noticing).

 

[EugW]

Chances are good, since E2EE is opt-out on iOS (it‘s enabled by default) and it‘s not single carriers who decide whether they support it or not. The GSMA specifies that E2EE has to be decided on per region, so it‘s all or nothing (e.g. either your country blocks e2ee or everyone supporting RCS has to support it).

Since not a single carrier exists with their own RCS infrastructure (they all piggyback / made deals with Jibe as their backend), E2EE should just work instantly for every carrier (disclaimer: I have yet to get it to work talking to Android friends, so there still seem to be quirks).

Good to know. My carrier in Canada (Freedom Mobile) supports RCS (like all major carriers in Canada) and rumour has it they apparently have been testing E2EE on RCS on iOS already, so I’m hoping RCS E2EE goes live next week. However, truthfully I’m less concerned about E2EE than I am about just RCS support.

You mean Group MMS. SMS is inherently not group chat capable (only mass SMS, e.g. you send a 1:1 SMS to each contact).

I just wish iOS would properly separate RCS groups from MMS groups… I‘m one bad connection blip away usually from incurring charges and creating duplicate MMS groups for my Android friends, since Apple doesn‘t care and up- and downgrades group chats instead of holding messages until you‘re online again (the send as text message fallback toggle does nothing for this when you lose RCS connection while typing, the chat input goes to MMS/SMS and you‘re having a bad day without noticing).

Yes you are correct. And yes it would be nice if Messages added more fine grained configuration settings for RCS vs MMS/SMS.

Messages oversimplifies things in a way that causes potential issues as you describe.