Your iPhone’s Green Bubble Messages Get Safer With iOS 26.5: Look for the Lock

Messaging between blue and green bubbles is getting more secure. With the release of iOS 26.5, end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging will start rolling out in beta for iPhone owners and people on Android phones with the latest version of Google Messages, according to a post from Apple.

End-to-end encryption protects a message’s privacy and security when it’s being sent from one device to another. Apple and Google have long offered encrypted messaging within iMessage and Google Messages, respectively. But this kind of encryption didn’t work for messages sent between iMessage and Google Messages – until now.

The feature will gradually roll out to people with an iPhone or Android phone over the coming months.

For years, there’s been a “blue vs. green bubble” divide between iPhone and Android owners. This ranged from Android users being teased for their green bubbles breaking iMessage group threads to becoming a major social stigma, with people being bullied for not having an iPhone. In 2024, Apple added RCS (Rich Communication Services) support to the iPhone with the release of iOS 18, which brought some parity between iMessage and Google Messages but lacked encryption between the two platforms.

So it is significant that Apple and Google are working together to bring end-to-end encryption to the GSMA’s RCS Universal Profile.

Cross-platform RCS chats will be encrypted for people on an iPhone with iOS 26.5 messaging and Android phone owners on the latest version of Google Messages with supported carriers. There will be a lock icon on the chat indicating that the conversation is encrypted — something RCS Google Messages already have. The lock will also appear for iMessage-only threads (blue bubbles) to show that they are encrypted. As iMessage and Google Messages end-to-end encryption reaches all users, it will automatically work for new and existing RCS conversations.