Ammon News - Apart from having some features that Android phones don't have, one of the main selling points of the iPhone and Apple's devices has always been security and encryption. You've likely heard stories about law enforcement having trouble cracking into an iPhone — that's how serious Apple is. Being the company's instant messaging service, iMessage benefits from that security. So, why do some iMessages show encrypted on iPhone, and what does it mean?

The small lock icon, followed by the word Encrypted, might look like you made a mistake, but fret not, as that is actually a very good thing. This is Apple's way of informing you that the conversation you're having is fully encrypted. In other words, no one — not carriers and not even Apple — can read the contents of an iMessage, apart from the sender and recipient. You might not know this, but Apple's iMessage has always been fully encrypted. It's just that with the recent iOS updates, the company is now making sure to display that fact to its users.

Since iMessage's introduction with the iOS 5 release back in October 2011, it has had E2EE (end-to-end encryption). The encryption did its thing behind the scenes (and still does), without users being aware. Even if a hacker were to intercept the traffic, they wouldn't be able to easily read the conversation. This isn't limited to just text messages, since anything you send through iMessages, including photos and videos, is encrypted too.

May's iOS update brought transparency

In May 2026, Apple launched iOS 26.5 with some cool features, including RCS (Rich Communication Services) end-to-end encryption. Unlike iMessages, which can only be sent to other Apple users, RCS can be used to send messages to non-Apple devices. While the feature isn't exactly new, the full encryption of it is. The interesting thing here is that with the introduction of RCS E2EE, Apple started showing its users that their conversations are encrypted.

That's why users have been reporting and asking why some iMessages say encrypted. Nothing really changed as iMessages functionality goes, it's simply Apple being more transparent by showing its users what's going on behind the scenes. Do note that in case you're using an older iOS version, it's likely you won't see this change yet. One other interesting thing about iMessage is that it can be used without cellular service or WiFi. You can send simple text and emojis via satellite, but only if you're running iOS 18 or later. So, next time you're out camping or trekking, this might come in handy.

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