Last March, Apple announced its plans to support end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages, after the feature was standardized by the GSM Association. After nearly a year of silence on this front, today's beta releases (iOS 26.3 beta 2) suggest that the company is getting closer to releasing the feature.
See also: What is End-to-End Encryption and how does it help?
As Tiino-X83 on X noted , iOS 26.3 beta 2 contains references to a new carrier bundle setting that will allow carriers to enable or disable E2EE for RCS messages. Interestingly, Tiino-X83 also noted that only the four major French carriers (Bouygues, Orange, SFR, and Free) have this line of code (no other carrier in any other country has it).
See also: GSMA: End-to-end encryption for RCS messages – Secure Cross-Platform Messaging
While documentation states that E2EE should be enabled by default, this default may be restricted by local regulations:
– R5-43-1 Enable E2EE by default, unless explicitly prohibited by local regulations.
– R5-43-1-1 The RCS client provider must enable or disable E2EE for all its users in an operating market.
– R5-43-1-2 RCS client provider must not enable or disable E2EE for a subset of users or for individual users in an operating market.
– R5-43-1-3 If E2EE is disabled, the user must be informed that E2EE is not available in their operating market.
– R5-43-2 All user-initiated content must be end-to-end encrypted, excluding “Is Typing” notifications.
See also: How to enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud (+ end-to-end encryption)
Additionally, if E2EE is active, the GSMA standard requires the user to be able to see the encryption status. The carrier bundle setting discovered in iOS 26.3 beta could act as a toggle for these requirements.
It's worth noting that it's not yet guaranteed that the feature will reach users with iOS 26.3, as Apple may simply be laying the groundwork for a future iOS release that will enable it. However, the fact that the code is now out there suggests that support could arrive at some point in the near future.
