• Launch of full message protection across phone systems
• New feature boosts chat security and reduces digital surveillance

For the first time, Android and iPhone users are gaining support for end-to-end encrypted messaging in text conversations, marking a major shift in digital privacy protection.

According to Monday’s announcement, the feature is beginning to roll out in beta for users running the latest software on both platforms, enabling more secure cross-platform messaging.

End-to-end encryption means messages are scrambled during transmission between devices, making them unreadable to any third party, including telecom providers, outside actors, or even service operators themselves.

While Apple’s iMessage has used encryption since 2011 and Android users have had similar protection within their own ecosystem since 2021, cross-platform conversations had remained unprotected until now.

The development follows years of technical disagreement between the companies over support for the modern RCS protocol, which adds features such as typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality media sharing, and encryption.

Users on both systems have long faced compatibility issues, including degraded media quality, broken group chats, and the well-known “green bubble” distinction used for Android messages on iPhones.

The update is rolling out gradually, and encrypted chats will display a lock icon to indicate that full protection is active.