Timing is everything. Excitement is building with Apple’s next iPhone update just days away. This is expected to bring a major change to iPhone, with fully encrypted texting (via RCS) between iPhone and Android for the first time. But it comes with a major reality check from Apple’s main competitor, Samsung, no less.

Apple’s next update is iOS 26.5, now in beta, which “brings back an option to enable end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging on your device,” CNet reports. This isn’t a surprise — we knew it was likely coming, albeit nothing’s 100% confirmed.

That iOS update is likely due on May 11 or May 12, suggests David Phelan on Forbes , noting that the update "that makes this version so important, is the introduction of end-to-end encrypted messaging with RCS.”

This is the biggest change to messaging on iPhone in 15 years, ever since iMessage launched in 2011. But just six weeks after Apple’s release, Samsung will start to shut down its own Messages app, which itself has been running for ten years.

Samsung’s app uses the standard RCS protocol — the one Apple also uses and is updating. Samsung had the option to update its own Messages app to the same encrypted protocol that Apple has baked into iOS 26.5. But Samsung has essentially warned its Galaxy smartphone users that this protocol is not good enough.

“Upgrade your messaging experience,” Samsung says. “The Samsung Messages application will be discontinued in July 2026. Upgrade to Google Messages as your default messaging app today to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.” That consistency includes “powerful security,” amongst other things.

Apple warns in its iOS 26.5 beta that end-to-end encrypted RCS is not available on all devices or carriers. The standard RCS protocol is carried by carriers not device manufacturers, unlike iMessage and Google Messages. This will make for a patchy upgrade timeline and user experience. You have been warned.

That’s what Samsung means by consistency. The only way to have seamless cross-platform messaging is to use a seamless cross-platform messenger — like WhatsApp or Signal or even Facebook Messenger or Telegram. Not RCS.

This coincidental timing — that just as Apple changes iPhone to adopt standards, Samsung changes Galaxy to reject them — is notable. Android’s consistent messaging is now carried by Google, not RCS, and it will not be available on iPhone.

Samsung’s messaging shut down has been a nightmare for Galaxy users, with texts disappearing on devices. Per TechRadar , “some Google Messages users are fuming after a bug erased some of their most prized chats.”

None of which is a good look for anything but dedicated cross-platform apps.