The end of the green bubble SMS era: One of the oldest and most annoying problems in the smartphone world is finally being solved. Apple and Google have announced the gradual rollout of end-to-end encrypted messaging between iPhone and Android users, based on the advanced RCS messaging standard. The meaning is clear: In cases where the technical conditions are met, messages between the two rival ecosystems will not only become more seamless, but also significantly better protected against interception, tracking, and exposure along the way.<\/p>\n
The rollout, which began recently\u00a0and is now gradually expanding, marks a turning point in the long-running battle between the \u201cblue bubble\u201d of iPhone users and the \u201cgreen bubble\u201d of Android users. For years, conversations between iPhones benefited from end-to-end encryption via iMessage, while Android-to-Android messaging was protected through Google\u2019s messaging services.<\/p>\n
But when the worlds collided – when an iPhone user texted an Android user – the communication often dropped\u00a0to outdated SMS or MMS messages, which are limited and far less secure.<\/p>\n
Now the picture is changing. According to Apple and Google, RCS encryption between iPhone and Android is beginning to roll out in beta, initially for iPhone users running iOS 26.5 with carrier support, and Android users running the latest version of Google Messages.<\/p>\n
The encryption is expected to be enabled by default, and will gradually be added to both new and existing conversations. Users will know a conversation is protected when they see a lock icon in the chat.<\/p>\n
Android 12. (credit: GOOGLE)<\/p>\n
It is important to emphasize: This is not encryption of traditional SMS itself. SMS is an old standard, limited and not end-to-end encrypted. The change is based on RCS, a more advanced standard designed to replace legacy messaging and add features familiar from modern messaging apps: Typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, higher-quality photo and video sharing, longer messages – and now also end-to-end encryption across operating systems.<\/p>\n
End-to-end encryption means that content is encrypted on the sender\u2019s device and can only be decrypted on the recipient\u2019s device. Along the way, neither the cellular provider, the service operator, nor external parties are supposed to be able to read the message content. For users, this represents an important layer of protection against hackers, data leaks, unauthorized tracking, and exposure of private conversations.<\/p>\n
However, as with any encryption service, it does not solve everything: If one of the devices is compromised, if the user takes a screenshot, or if an insecure backup is created, the content may still be exposed.<\/p>\n
The move comes after years of pressure from Google on Apple to adopt RCS. Apple, which has long guarded iMessage as a closed and attractive system for iPhone users, avoided full support for the standard for a long time.<\/p>\n
Behind the scenes were also regulatory pressure, public criticism, and growing user frustration, especially in the United States, where message bubble color became almost a social symbol. Android users often suffered from broken group chats, low-quality photos and videos, and the lack of basic features that had long been available in iPhone-to-iPhone conversations.<\/p>\n
WhatsApp, illustration. (credit: REUTERS)<\/p>\n
Apple began supporting RCS on iPhone in earlier updates, but without end-to-end encryption in iPhone-to-Android conversations. The current announcement closes one of the remaining major gaps.<\/p>\n
Still, Apple continues to emphasize that iMessage remains its preferred method of communication between Apple devices. In other words, the company is opening the door to a significant improvement in cross-platform messaging, but is not giving up the marketing advantage of its closed ecosystem.<\/p>\n
For users in Israel, the practical impact will still depend on real-world rollout. The service is currently in beta, so not all users will see it immediately. It requires a software update on the iPhone, carrier support, and on the Android side the latest version of Google Messages. Users who do not meet these conditions may still see non-encrypted conversations, or ones that fall back to the older messaging standard. Therefore, the lock icon will be the key indicator: It will confirm that the iPhone-to-Android conversation is indeed encrypted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The end of the green bubble SMS era: One of the oldest and most annoying problems in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[821,311,18,823,19,431,17,14611,82,119552,4635],"class_list":["post-496856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-android","tag-apple","tag-eire","tag-google","tag-ie","tag-iphone","tag-ireland","tag-message","tag-technology","tag-technology-innovation","tag-whatsapp"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116616219414438353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}