Is It Safe to Send Texts From iPhones to Androids and Androids to iPhones?

Nor can Google read Google Messages while the communications are whisked from your phone to the phone you’re messaging if both the sender and recipient have enabled RCS Chats, shorthand for an industry standard protocol for messaging called Rich Communications Services.

“Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication,” CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Jeff Greene,  said during a recent press call. “Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible” to read.

You can choose to use another app

You have choices for private messaging apps that employ end-to-end encryption. Signal Private Messenger, Telegram Messenger, and Meta’s Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Messenger are among the most notable.

The apps are free. Beyond instant text messages, you can make calls, have group chats, dispatch pictures and videos, and in some cases exploit other features, such as making messages automatically vanish after a set time.

But for the most part, the folks you’re messaging must be using the same app.

“Signal is kind of the gold standard here” among privacy advocates, says Chris Frascella, counsel at the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

More often he hears about deepfakes and other scams that come through Telegram or WhatsApp. But he’s quick to caution that Signal isn’t immune.

“It’s important to differentiate between the types of attacks that are likely to result from harvesting people’s communications,” he says.

“I would expect that the state espionage actors in [Salt Typhoon] are probably looking for information that can help them get access to valuable government or corporate data,” Frascella says. “If the actors behind this cyberintrusion were to make the data they harvested available to fraudsters, that could make it easier to impersonate a family member” as part of a deepfake.

Practice safe texting. Keep sensitive info out of your chats

Even if you are using end-to-end encryption, be mindful of anything you put in a text or chat message. Unless it is an absolute necessity, avoid including your most sensitive or revealing personal information in even private communications.

Important considerations: Does the person that you’re messaging really need to know what you’re being asked to share? Do you absolutely trust that person?

 “My parents raised me, ‘Do not put anything in a digital communication that you do not want to see in Times Square,’ ” Frascella says.

Consider it sound advice.

Bonus tip: More iPhone support for texts with an Android

With the recent iOS 18 software update, Apple added support for the RCS standard, bringing features that users of Apple’s preferred iMessage protocol have grown accustomed to but were absent when texting an Android user.

iMessage remains Apple-only. But the update means you can exchange high-resolution photos and videos as well as view delivery, read receipt and typing indicators.

Enable RCS Messaging on iPhone in Settings | Apps | Messages | RCS Messaging. If you’re using cellular, your wireless carrier must support the standard.

Apple points out that its implementation of RCS is not end-to-end encrypted, so it isn’t protected against someone who might want to peek at a message’s contents.

If you’re using RCS to message an Android pal, the text field on iPhone will show “Text Message RCS.” It will still show iMessage when you text another iPhone user.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about “green bubble shaming,” as The New York Times called the texting divide, messages between iPhones and Android will still appear in green text bubbles. iMessage texts arrive in bubbles that are blue.