After the first beta was iPhone to iPhone only, the second iOS 26.4 developer beta lets iPhones and Androids trade fully encrypted RCS messages for the first time.
You may recall that in the first iOS 26.4 developer beta, Apple introduced end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messaging. You may also remember that it was extremely limited and only worked between iPhones with iMessage disabled.
That's no longer the case. The second developer beta for iOS 26.4 now allows iPhone users to send E2EE RCS messages to Android users. Of course, there's a bit of a caveat — Google users will need to have the latest version of Google Messages installed.
If the criteria is met, you'll be able to tell if your messages are encrypted by the addition of a small lock icon in the chat. And, as a reminder, iMessage-based threads will also see the lock, though iMessage has had E2EE since its launch — all the way back in 2011.
Again, Apple has reiterated that it's merely testing these features in the iOS 26.4 betas. Additionally, Apple says E2EE isn't available for all devices or carriers, though it doesn't mention specifics.
Don't expect to see E2EE for RCS in March when Apple rolls out the update properly. Apple says it'll be out "in a future iOS 26 software update."
