- Draft messages are much easier to find in iOS 26
- Leaked code also suggests that iOS 26 brings a huge security increase
- Apple is testing apparently end-to-end encryption to RCS messages
How many times have you started writing a text in iOS’s messages and then left it for later, only to forget who you were described and what you said a few hours on the line?
It’s a common occurrence, but iOS 26 includes a new feature that will make it much easier to find the unfinished texts – and it’s almost shocking Apple hasn’t implemented it before.
If you run iOS 26 Public Beta, you can now filter your texts by draft status. All you have to do is open the Messages app, tap the Hamburger menu in the upper right corner, and then select the draft under the filter with header. Your messages now only show draft texts and nothing else, saving you a lot of time tapping on all your existing threads in a vain attempt to find the evasive draft.
There are also filters for other situations. If you have scheduled messages for another time, for example. Send a Send later filter while there is an unread filter for any message you haven’t been given to read yet.
Note that these filters will only appear if there is a relevant message to be filtered. For example, if you have no draft, you cannot see the draft filter. And these filters work whether you use Apple’s iPhone-to-IPhone iMessage Standard or RCS/SMS messages sent to Android devices. Blue bubbles or green bubbles, it works.
Stronger security
When we talk about RCS messages, iOS 26 may include a significant increase in security when it comes to sending texts between an iPhone and an Android device, and it can address an error that has gone unaddened for too long.
According to Apple Code, which was reportedly discovered by Android Authority, iOS 26 will implement end-to-end encryption when sending messages using the RCS protocol between iOS and Android. Although you can currently send RCS messages between these two platforms (something that Apple has finally brought in iOS 18), the standard is not end-to-end encrypted. While iMessage has shown this security technology for years, the GSM Association (GSMA)-which has implements and updates the RCS roof for a while to add this hardened encryption.
That changed in March 2025 when GSMA said end-to-end encryption would be added to RCS. And although Apple has previously described that end-to-end encryption would come to RCS on iPhone in “Future Software Updates”, it didn’t set a date for the change.
Still, Android Authority says it has seen code that includes the string “gisrcsenscyptionabled”, suggesting that RCS encryption undergoes internal testing at Apple. Additional code pieces also include the string “MLS-RCS server”, which could involve Apple assessing the MLS encryption that Google has added to Google messages.
Despite the promising signs, there is no guarantee that iOS 26 implements RCS encryption. Apple took a long time to implement RCS in the first place – partly because of its weaker security compared to iMessage – and it can simply test its updated functionality. But the fact that these strings are present in iOS 26 code gives us hope that RCS encryption may be on the way, making the cross-platform smeared more safely for iOS and Android users.
