Apple is making progress on a feature that could make texting between iPhones and Android phones much more private and secure. The company has begun testing technology that would encrypt messages sent between the two platforms, according to Android Authority, which first reported on the update.
Right now, when iPhone users text Android users through regular text messages, those conversations are not secure—anyone intercepting them could potentially read them. Apple has promised to fix this problem, and the company is now actively testing the solution in its latest software beta.
According to the report, Apple is testing end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging between iOS and Android devices in the newest iOS 26.4 Developer Beta 2 release. This means messages would be scrambled during transmission, so only the people sending and receiving them could read the content.
The technology behind this is called Messaging Layer Security, or MLS. Think of it like a locked envelope—only the person you're sending it to has the key to open it. iPhone-to-iPhone messages through iMessage already have this protection, and Android-to-Android messages do too, but messages between the two different phone types have been vulnerable.
To test this feature now, iPhone users can download the developer beta version of iOS and turn on the encryption option in their Messages settings. Android users need to enroll in Google Messages app beta to receive these encrypted messages. The feature shows up as a small lock icon in conversations that are encrypted.
Apple hasn't said when this feature will be available to regular users—it's still in early testing stages. The company confirmed that the encryption feature won't be included in the regular version of iOS 26.4 when it's released. However, when it does roll out, both iPhone and Android users will finally have peace of mind knowing their cross-platform messages are protected from prying eyes.
Source: Android Authority
