A new developer beta of iOS and iPadOS that supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Rich Communications Services (RCS) messages was made available by Apple on Monday This article explores e2ee protecting messages. . A future update for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS is anticipated to bring the feature to consumers.

It is currently available for testing in the iOS and iPadOS 26.4 Beta. According to Apple's release notes, "End-to-end encryption is in beta and is not available for all devices or carriers." "Messages sent between devices cannot be read because conversations marked as encrypted are encrypted end-to-end." Additionally, the iPhone manufacturer noted that RCS encryption is only available for conversations between Apple devices and not on other platforms like Android.

The GSM Association (GSMA) formally announced support for E2EE for protecting messages sent via the RCS protocol almost a year prior to the secure messaging test. Apple will need to update to RCS Universal Profile 3.0, which is based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, in order to support E2EE for RCS. A new feature included in the most recent beta enables apps to choose to fully utilize Memory Integrity Enforcement's (MIE) protections for improved memory safety.

According to Apple, apps were previously only available in Soft Mode.

By providing "always-on memory safety protection" across crucial attack surfaces like the kernel and more than 70 userland processes, MIE was introduced by the company last September as a means of thwarting complex mercenary spyware attacks that target its platform without sacrificing performance. A MacRumors report claims that iOS 26.4 will also make Stolen Device Protection available to all iPhone users by default. By requiring Face ID or Touch ID biometric authentication when carrying out sensitive tasks like accessing stored passwords and credit cards when the device is away from familiar locations, like home or work, the feature adds an additional layer of security.

Stolen Device Protection also adds a one-hour delay before making Apple Account password changes, on top of the Face ID or Touch ID authentication to give users some time to mark their device as lost in the event it gets stolen.