After 15 years of waiting, iPhone and Android users can finally exchange messages that are end-to-end encrypted. From Monday, the new function began rolling out in beta between phones running the latest operating system versions.

End-to-end encrypted messages mean that in transit no one - not hackers, not governments, not even the companies that own the platform - can read the content of the message. Apple's iMessage has been encrypted since 2011. Android users encrypt between themselves since 2021. But iPhone-to-Android messages - until today, plain text.

A whole book could be written about the reason. Apple refused to support the RCS standard - the technology that replaces SMS with modern features like typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions and, yes, encryption. Until 2023 Apple stood stubbornly behind the closed iMessage. Regulatory pressure brought that policy down.

Until then, the unifying phenomenon of American teenagers was „the green bubbles" - the messages from Android users that appeared in iMessage as green dots in a blue world. The shy „green stigma" even got academic papers written about it.

The encrypted RCS rollout is in beta, so most users will not have access immediately. If the iPhone-Android conversation is encrypted, a padlock icon appears on the screen. A symbol of regulation winning over closed ecosystems - a victory that, incidentally, was almost two decades late.