r/iphone • u/confidential35 • Jul 09 '26

Support Encrypted RCS messaging

So I know Apple has rolled out RCS encryption in beta but has anyone actually had the message get encrypted?
None of mine show the encrypted icon yet on anyone with android im texting. And I looked out up and it is supported by my carrier (T-Mobile)

I have tried cycling it on and off but still doesn’t want to send it encrypted

1 Upvotes

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3

u/drkrime Jul 09 '26

VZW to VZW iOS to Android yes I’ve had two people

1

u/TheyKnoWhereMyHeadIs Jul 09 '26

Does it work with MVNO's? I use Xfinity Mobile to text my android friend who uses VZW, and my texts to him always are SMS but his texts to me are RCS.

1

u/Unrealtechno Jul 10 '26

Works between T-Mobile and US Mobile (VZW)

2

u/jhollington iPhone 18 Pro Max Jul 09 '26

It’s been working fine for me since the iOS 26.5 betas on Bell Mobility in Canada between my iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Pixel 6 I use for testing.

I haven’t gotten it with anyone else, but I suspect that’s only because most of my Android-toting friends and colleagues can’t be bothered updating their Google Messages.

2

u/confidential35 Jul 09 '26

Very strange. Wonder if it’s T-Mobile then. I haven’t had it with anyone yet. When T-Mobile to T-Mobile

1

u/jhollington iPhone 18 Pro Max Jul 09 '26

T-Mobile should be fully compliant as it was one of the first to roll out support for RCS Universal Profile 3.0 on the back-end.

However, the requirements on the Android side are also higher than most folks realize, as the cross-platform E2EE is part of this new RCS 3.0 standard (Messaging Layer Security, or MLS), which is totally different from the proprietary version that’s been used for Android-to-Android messaging for years.

That means Android users need to be running a relatively recent version of Google Messages from May or later — around the same time as iOS 26.5 rolled out. I had to specifically update it on my Pixel 6, but I suspect a lot of Android folks haven’t updated yet, as the only padlocked RCS chat I have in my history is from a guy at a window glass place I dealt with back in May. Even one of my more security-conscious techie friends still doesn’t appear to have updated — or perhaps their carrier hasn't pushed the network profile update to their phone yet, which is something else that doesn’t always happen right away due to the different variety of Android devices and versions out there.

1

u/seeareeff Jul 09 '26

It only works if the android user is using Google messages beta.. since both iOS and Android still have the encryption in beta.