Apple doesn’t exactly have a long and glorious history with RCS (“Rich Communication Services”): For a long time, the company stubbornly refused to implement the communication standard in iOS and instead referred to its in-house solution iMessage – which, however, is not compatible with Android smartphones. A rethink only occurred with iOS 18.1: RCS has been on board since then, although it is a rather makeshift implementation, which also does not provide for end-to-end encryption for messages. But that is likely to change soon – possibly with iOS 26.3. RCS with encryption: First indications for France
Last year, the GSM Association (GSMA) announced that it would introduce standard end-to-end encryption for messages via RCS. Apple said it has been involved in this cross-industry initiative and will add support for encrypted messages in a later update. Since the announcement, however, things have been pretty quiet. The X user Tiino-X83 was able to find concrete evidence of an implementation in the current beta of iOS 26.3. The build includes so-called “carrier bundles” with the corresponding settings for the four largest mobile phone providers in France. However, Tiino-X83 was unable to identify any other providers – not even in other countries.
Users can find out whether encryption is supported
The GSMA requires all RCS clients to enable encryption in the future, but this may be restricted due to local regulations. Users can also view the encryption status. It is uncertain whether Apple will actually take action with the final version of iOS 26.3: Cupertino has still not announced an official launch for the feature on the iPhone. The final version of iOS 26.3 should not appear until the end of January at the earliest, but probably not until the beginning of February. The update may not yet support all major mobile phone providers.
