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Apple Was Caught Off Guard by AirPods Pro 3 Popularity

2026-01-30 06:56:40

AirPods Pro 3 demand was so strong after the earbuds launched in September that their popularity reportedly "caught Apple off guard."


"AirPods Pro 3 were supply-constrained during the quarter, and we think we would have grown year over year if we would not have been constrained," Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters, in a report published alongside Apple's record-breaking earnings results for the fourth quarter of the 2025 calendar year. He is referring to Apple's Wearable, Home, and Accessories category, which saw around a 2% drop in revenue year-over-year.

AirPods Pro 3 no longer have any extended delivery delays on Apple's online store, so it would appear that Apple has caught up on supply by now.

AirPods Pro 3 feature increased active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, longer battery life per charge, heart rate monitoring during workouts, improved fit for many users, increased water resistance, a new XXS ear tip size, and more.

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Apple Responds to Fast-Rising RAM and Storage Chip Prices

2026-01-30 06:40:59

On an earnings call with equity analysts today, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to fast-rising RAM and SSD storage chip prices in the supply chain.


Cook said that rising memory chip prices had a "minimal impact" on Apple's gross margin in the fourth quarter of the 2025 calendar year, but he does expect a "bit more of an impact" on the company's gross margin in the current quarter.

Cook added that Apple is aware of the rising prices and "will look at a range of options to deal with that" over the long term, if necessary.

Apple reported record-breaking revenue of $143.8 billion last quarter, up 16% year-over-year, and it is predicting similar 13% to 16% year-over-year growth and gross margin of 48% to 49% in the current quarter, so the company is still reporting impressive earnings results despite concerns surrounding memory chip prices.
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Apple Reaches 2.5 Billion Active Devices

2026-01-30 06:02:09

There are now more than 2.5 billion active Apple devices, the company announced today.


"We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a press release announcing the company's record-breaking earnings results.

Apple said it had more than 2.35 billion active devices in the year-ago quarter, and the number continues to rise. It shows that Apple has a massive opportunity to sell services, ranging from Apple Music subscriptions to iCloud+ storage plans to the all-new Apple Creator Studio bundle with Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and more apps.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook Says iPhone Sales Were 'Simply Staggering' Towards End of 2025

2026-01-30 05:51:50

Apple today reported earnings results for the fourth quarter of the 2025 calendar year, including record-breaking $143.8 billion revenue that was up 16% year-over-year. These results were driven in part by exceptionally strong iPhone sales.


iPhone revenue in the quarter was $85.2 billion, a new all-time high. That is up from $69.1 billion in the year-ago quarter, a 23% increase.

"iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in Apple's press release announcing its earnings results. Cook told CNBC's Steve Kovach that demand for the iPhone last quarter was "simply staggering" and beat Apple's expectations.

The latest iPhone lineup includes the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apple does not break down iPhone revenue on a model-by-model basis, and it did not comment on exactly which models were most popular.

The quarter encompassed the 2025 holiday shopping season, so it is safe to say that a lot of people were gifted a shiny new iPhone last month.

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Apple Reports Record-Setting 1Q 2026 Results: $42.1B Profit on $143.8B Revenue

2026-01-30 05:38:21

Apple today announced financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2026, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2025.


For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $143.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $42.1 billion, or $2.84 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $124.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $36.3 billion, or $2.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Apple set all-time records during the quarter for total revenue, earnings per share, iPhone revenue, and services revenue. Total revenue was up 16 percent year-over-year, while earnings per share rose by 19 percent.

Gross margin for the quarter was 48.2 percent, compared to 46.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple also declared a quarterly dividend payment of $0.26 per share, payable on February 12 to shareholders of record as of February 9.

"Today, Apple is proud to report a remarkable, record-breaking quarter, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago and well above our expectations," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14 percent from a year ago. We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world."

As has been the case for over five years now, Apple is once again not issuing guidance for the current quarter ending in March.


Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q1 2026 financial results conference call at 2:00 pm Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference call recap ahead...



1:39 pm: "During the December quarter, our record business performance and strong margins led to EPS growth of 19 percent, setting a new all-time EPS record," said Kevan Parekh, Apple's CFO. "These exceptionally strong results generated nearly $54 billion in operating cash flow, allowing us to return almost $32 billion to shareholders."

1:39 pm: Apple's stock price is currently up almost 2% in after-hours trading following the earnings release.

1:48 pm: ‌iPhone‌ revenue was up a whopping 23.3% year-over-year, while Services revenue was up 13.9% and iPad revenue was up 6.3%. Mac revenue was down 6.7% and Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue was down 2.2%.

1:54 pm: Looking at revenue by geographic segments, Greater China was up 37.9%, Europe was up 12.7%, the Americas were up 11.2%, Japan was up 4.7%, and Rest of Asia Pacific was up 18.0%.

1:57 pm: Apple's earnings call with analysts should begin at the top of the hour. Expected on the call are Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh.

2:02 pm: Suhasani Chandramouli, Apple's director of investor relations, is starting the call with the standard investor warnings about forward-looking statements.

2:04 pm: Tim is on. "I am proud to say that we just had a quarter for the record books."

"We are reporting our best ever quarter with $143.8 billion in revenue, up 16% from a year ago and exceeding our expectations."

‌iPhone‌ demand was "simply staggering" with revenue growing 23% year over year and all time records across every geographic segment. Service set an all-time revenue record as well, up 14% from a year ago, with earnings per share to an all-time record of $2.84, up 19% year over year. All-time records were set in the Americas, Europe, Japan and the rest of Asia Pacific. Greater China grew 38% year over year.

2:05 pm: Beginning with ‌iPhone‌, "it was a fantastic quarter for ‌iPhone‌." $85.3 billion in sales, up 23% year over year. "This is the strongest ‌iPhone‌ lineup we've ever had and by far the most popular."

2:06 pm: On Mac, revenue was $8.4 billion, with the Mac installed base reaching another all-time high with "nearly half" of customers who purchased a Mac being new to the product.

2:06 pm: ‌iPad‌ saw revenue of $8.6 billion, up 6% from a year ago with an all-time record for upgraders.

2:07 pm: Across Wearables, Home and Accessorires, revenue was $11.5 billion. Products here include Apple Watch, AirPods, AirTags and other devices.

2:08 pm: "We are seeing very high levels of customer satisfaction and we are proud to report a new record for our installed base with more than 2.5 billion active devices."

2:09 pm: A majority of users on enabled iPhones are actively leveraging the power of Apple Intelligence.

2:09 pm: "We are bringing intelligence to more of what people already love about our products, so we can make every experience even more capable and effortless."

2:10 pm: "We are also collaborating with Google to develop the next generation of Apple foundation models. These will help power future Apple Inteligence features including a more personalized Siri, coming this year."

2:11 pm: In Services, an all-time revenue record of $30 billion, up 14% from a year ago. Services set all-time revenue records in both developed and emerging markets. In December, Apple TV saw a 36% increase in viewership over the prior year.

2:11 pm: "We are excited by the growing enthusiasm viewers have for ‌Apple TV‌ and we are greatful for the accolades that have followed."

2:12 pm: "We're approaching the start of the new Formula One season. For F1 fans in the US, ‌Apple TV‌ will be the place to watch every practice, qualifying, sprint, and grand prix." MLS fans will get every regular and postseason game with their subscription.

2:12 pm: Apple Music set all time highs in both listenership and new subscriber growth.

2:13 pm: Developers have earned more than $550 billion on the App Store platform since 2008.

2:13 pm: Best-ever results for retail, opened a fifth store in India with another store coming to Mumbai soon.

2:14 pm: "We're especially proud of the work we're doing to support American innovation. Last year we committed to invest $600 billion over four years in vital industries like advanced manufacturing, silicon, engineering, and artificial intelligence. As we're building on our long standing investments in America, we're supporting nearly half a million jobs with 1000s of suppliers across all 50 states."

2:15 pm: Cook is touting work with Corning in Kentucky, Micron, and the development of an end-to-end silicon supply chain across the country.

2:16 pm: "This was, in so many ways, a remarkable quarter for Apple... I have every confidence that our best work is yet to come."

2:16 pm: Handing over to Kevan.

2:18 pm: He's going over some of the same numbers that Tim announced previously, adding some details like company gross margin at 48.2% "above the high end of our guidance range." Products gross margin was 40.7%, up 450 basis points sequentially. Services gross margin was 76.5%, up 120 basis points sequentially. Operating Expenses were $18.4 billion, up 19% year over year, driven by invreased investment in R&D. Net income was $42.1 billion and diluted earnings per share was $2.84. Operating cash flow was $53.9 billion, another all-time record.

2:19 pm: ‌iPhone‌ revenue was $85.3 billion, up 23% year over year. ‌iPhone‌ saw strength around the world, reaching all-time revenue records in many of the markets they track, including the US, Greater China, Latin America, Western Europe, Middle East, Australia and South Asia. New all-time record for upgraders in aggregate and across many countries including the US, China Mainland, Japan and India.

2:19 pm: According to a recent survey from World panel, ‌iPhone‌ was a top selling model in the US urban China, the UK, Australia and Japan. Customer Satisfaction for the iPhone 17 family was measured at 99% by 451 Research.

2:19 pm: Mac revenue was $8.4 billion, down 7% year over year, against a M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac launches last year.

2:20 pm: Nearly half of customers who purchased a Mac were new to the product, with customer satisfaction measured at 97%.

2:20 pm: ‌iPad‌ Revenue was $8.6 billion, up 6%. More than half of ‌iPad‌ customers were new to the product, reaching a new all-time high of the ‌iPad‌ install base, plus an all-time high for upgraders. Customer satisfaction was 98% in the US.

2:21 pm: Wearables, Home and Accessories saw revenue of $11.5 billion, down 2%. AirPods Pro 3 were constrained, and if not for those constraints, Apple believes the category would have grown in the quarter. Customer satisfaction on Apple Watch was 96%, with more than half of Apple Watch buyers new to the product.

2:22 pm: Services revenue was $30 billion, up 14% year over year, with all time revenue records on advertising, music, payment services and cloud services. Double digit growth on paid subscribers. Install base of 2.5 billion active devices gives "an incredibly strong foundation for new growth opportunities."

2:23 pm: Now he's discussing enterprise growth, noting deployment of Macs at Snowflake, ‌iPad‌ Pros at AstraZeneca, and MacBook Airs at Coppel in Mexico.

2:23 pm: Apple had $145 billion in cash and marketable securities, with $2.2 billion of debt maturities and decreases in commercial paper by $6 billion, with $91 billion in total debt. Net cash was $54 billion, with $32 billion in cash returned to shareholders, with $3.9 billion in dividends and equivalents and $25 billion in open market repurchases of 93 million Apple shares.

2:25 pm: Expects March quarter total company revenue will grow 13 to 16%, and services revenue to grow a ta year over year rate similar to December. Gross margin to be between 48% and 49%. Operating expenses between $18.4 and $18.7 billion driven by higher R&D costs. Tax rate around 17.5%. Dividend of $0.26 per share in mid February.

2:25 pm: The Q&A session with analysts is beginning.

2:28 pm: Q: A lot of focus on the impact of memory. Can we get some of your perspective on that guiding gross margins and your comfort in securing for shipment? How do we think about memory inflation over time?

A: We were thrilled with customer response to ‌iPhone‌, and ‌iPhone‌ grow 23%. We exited the December quarter with very lean channel inventory due to that staggering level of demand. We're in a supply chase mode to meet the very high levels of customer demand. We are current constrained and it is difficult to predict when supply and demand will balance the constraints. It's driven by the availability in the advanced nodes that our SOCs are produced on and we are seeing less flexibility in supply chain than normal, partly because of the increased demand that I just spoke about.

From a memory point of view, memory had a minimal impact on Q1 December gross margin, we expect more of an impact in Q2 gross margin and that was comprehended in the outlook of 48 to 49% that Kevan gave earlier. We don't provide outlook beyond the current quarter, but we do see market pricing for memory increasing significantly. We'll look at a range of options to deal with that.

2:30 pm: Q: In China, can you touch on the strength you had? I think this is very close to all time revenue records. What's driving the strength over there?

A: Greater China was up 38% driven by ‌iPhone‌, best ‌iPhone‌ quarter in history in China. Traffic in our stores grew by strong double digit year over year. Installed base reached an all time high, and we set an all time record for the upgraders and iPhones were the top three smartphones in urban China during the quarter. It was really driven by product strength and customer response to the product strength. On non-iPhone customers, the majority on Mac and ‌iPad‌ and Watch, they're still new to the product. ‌iPad‌ was the top tablet in Urban China, MacBook Air was the top-selling laptop, and ‌Mac mini‌ was the top selling Desktop model in the December quarter. We could not be more happy with it.

2:32 pm: Q: On the partnership with Google, can you help us understand what the revenue upside potential that exists with AI? Many of your competitors have already integrated AI into their devices, and it's just not clear yet what incremental monetization they're seeing because of AI, but you're always disciplined with investing you obviously have a differentiated product. So, how do you monetize AI and what's the timeline to realizing that ROI?

A: We're bringing intelligence to more of what people love, and we're integrating it across the operating system in a personal and private way. And I think that by doing so, it creates great value, and that opens up a range of opportunities across our products and services. We're very happy with the collaboration with Google as well, I should add.

2:33 pm: Q: Can you maybe help us understand what the primary factors are driving strength in the ‌iPhone‌? I'm sure there's a number of factors, but if you if you had to point to one or two, just what would they be and how sustainable do you think those are?

A: I think it's different for different cohorts of where people are coming from in the device that they have, but it's a combination of things always that make the product sing. It's the display, it's the camera, it's the performance, it's the new selfie camera, it's the design, the design is beloved, and so it's it's all of these things that that, that come together at once, and have are producing a very strong product cycle, as witnessed by our December quarter results.

2:34 pm: Q: Encouraging to hear of the revenue growth outlook for the March quarter, can you talk about any comps that we should be aware of as we think about the product categories, last year you had M4 ‌MacBook Air‌, iPhone 16e, iPad Air, are there tough comps or is it less of an issue?

A: Wouldn't say there's any comp issue that we would note, there's nothing that rises to that outlook but just a continue of the strong cycle that we're seeing subject to the constraints that we've already mentioned.

2:35 pm: Q: On services, advertising was strong in the quarter. Wanted to ask about some of the new growth opportunities in advertising, new ad slots in the ‌App Store‌. Can you talk about that and any plans to do more in advertising across other products like maps or TV?

A: In general, we saw really good broad-based performance in our cross-services business, all-time records in advertising, music, payment services and cloud services — really good opportunities. Wallet, digital ID, and new ads in the ‌App Store‌. We'll continue to look for ways to expand opportunities to add value to users and to Apple, 2.5 billion active devices makes us excited about the opportunities that provides for our services business.

2:37 pm: Q: On the Google partnership, how did you come to that decision with AI and ‌Siri‌ in particular? If there's an opportunity there for you guys to share in revenue too with that partnership like you do in Search?

A: We determined that Google's AI technology would provide the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models. We believe that we can unlock a lot of experiences and innovate in a key way due to the collaboration. We'll continue to run on the device and run in private cloud compute and maintain our industry leading privacy standards in doing so. In terms of doing the arrangement with Google, we're not releasing the details of that.

2:39 pm: Q: On gross margin, I'm pretty shocked that you're able to do 48-49%. What's really going on there? How are you doing that with these memory NAN prices? Is it mix, less hardware and more services? How are you doing it?

A: Let me reflect on Q1 gross margin, landing at 48.2%, we were up 100 basis points sequentially, we talk about favorable mix. When we have a strong product cycle, that does lend itself to more favorable opportunity on the leverage side. Products were up sequentially by 450 basis points, the Services business growing double-digit, similar guidance to December. We see favorable mix, and normal puts and takes, but we feel good about 48-49% which is similar to the range pointed out in December.

2:42 pm: Q: How are you thinking about the overall smartphone market demand, given where memory prices are headed, availability of components and how that might hurt demand destruction or market weakness? What are you seeing as we move through the year?

A: On the supply side, the constraints that I mentioned is due to advanced node capacity and it's really a result of growing so well in Q1 with the 23% and having less flexibility partly due to that in the process to increase it as much as we would like to increase it. Beyond Q2, I don't really want to comment on supply. Supply is a function of a lot of things in the industry that move around a lot so I wouldn't want to comment on that, and I talked before on memory pricing. Hopefully that answers your question. In terms of smartphone demand, we believe that based on the information that we've got, we gained share in the December quarter. Obviously the market wasn't growing at 23% so we feel good about doing that but I wouldn't want to predict how the market reacts in the future. It's very difficult to do that.

2:42 pm: Q: Can you help us understand, you mentioned there's a range of options that you're looking at, how should we think about LTAs in the marketplace or is it more spot based particularly around memory? How should we think about the dynamics of the marketplace?

A: It's a range, I don't want to get more specific than that. There are different levers that we can push and who knows how successful they'll be, but there's a range of options.

2:44 pm: Q: Grew services by 14% and you said the ‌App Store‌ was a record for the December quarter, but third party data is showing a notable deceleration in ‌App Store‌ growth, maybe 7% in the quarter relative to your 14% growth. Cna you confirm that if it's correct and what might the drivers be?

A: We had a quarterly record on the ‌App Store‌ and we don't provide specific color on how the individual services categories have done. We saw broad-based growth across all the different categories, records in both developed and emerging markets and double digit growth in both of those too. We don't provide that detailed color at the services level.

2:44 pm: Q: Back to memory prices, I appreciate that you have a range of options to address that. Historically Apple has not used a pricing lever unless FX markets got very dislocated to ruin arbitrage or anything like that, but would pricing be a lever that you were willing to pull or push?

A: I wouldn't want to speculate on that one.

2:46 pm: Q: Looking at your capital investment in Q1, it did moderate from the last one. Did the partnership with Google, does that have any near term impact on intent to use Apple Private Cloud? Any changes on that through the collaboration?

A: We won't provide details on the arrangement and collaboration, speaking on capex in general, we have a hybrid model for capex, so what happens is our capex can be volatile independent of our business, made of several different line items including tooling, facilities, investments in retail or data centers, leveraging a combination of first- and third-party capacity so it's hard to read into the capex and draw any conclusions. There will be some ebbs and flows to capex and last year we did build out our private cloud compute environment and so we did have some spending related to that in December.

2:48 pm: Q: You mentioned product gross margin, what are you seeing with mix as a driver on ‌iPhone 17‌ versus 16, as well as tariffs in the quarter and what you're expecting for next quarter?

A: I mentioned overall margin, we have a higher favorability than you might have seen in other cycles. Typically we see the impact of the cost structure of new products, but we were seeing a more favorable offset from the mix and leverage versus historical because of the demand. We outlined an amount of $1.4 billion in tariffs for December and we landed roughly in that range.

2:49 pm: Q: How do you differentiate between Apple foundation model functionality and third party models? Does the Apple model evolve to a different layer in the software stack? How do you think about it as you partner with third-party frontier models?

A: You should think about it as a collaboration and we'll indepedently do our own stuff, but you should think about what is going to power the personalized version of ‌Siri‌ as a collaboration with Google.

2:50 pm: Q: Given the memory constraint on commodities, with Apple having more purchasing power, do you think this is a chance for you to increase your market share as competitors have more constraints in getting access to memory?

A: I'd only want to talk about what has happened, and we believe that the ‌iPhone‌ gained share in the quarter and that Mac gained share for the full year, so we feel very good about our position.

2:51 pm: Q: Some pundits are comparing the ‌iPhone 17‌ upgrade cycle to the 2020-2021 year, curious if you agree to that view and can you layer on the impact of ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to the refresh rate?

A: Each cycle has its own characteristics, I wouldn't compare it to a specific one. ‌iPhone 17‌ is a unique product that brings several compelling features to one product and it has done extremely well and we feel quite good about it. We talked about the fact that we have a large and diverse installed base of customers and this product has really resonated with multiple cohorts whether you're on older devices or newer.

2:52 pm: Q: I'm surprised you guys are constrained on advanced packaging, as you generally get your share at a big foundry. How long will these supply impact your ability to ship to true demand?

A: It's difficult to estimate demand when you haven't met the demand. We have internal estimates, but I don't want to share those. It's the advanced nodes, the 3nm to be specific, where our SOCs are the latest SOCs that are produced as to what is gating the Q2 supply. It's a direct result of the 23% growth and that far outstripping what we had internally estimated and having more limited flexibility in the supply chain for some period of time. I don't want to estimate when supply and demand will balance at this point.

2:54 pm: Q: There's a lot of focus on the China demand, but you also called out India. Can you help unpack some of the things you're seeing in the Indian market?

A: We set a quarterly revenue record during the December quarter, and to go a little further down, we set quarterly revenue records on ‌iPhone‌, Mac and ‌iPad‌, and an all-time revenue record on Services. We really like what we see there, and it's the second largest smartphone market in the world and the fourth-largest PC market. Despite some very nice growth history, we have modest share there and so we think there's a huge opportunity for us there. The majority of customers that are buying ‌iPhone‌ and Mac and ‌iPad‌ and Watch are all new to that product. We are seeing strong double-digit growth in the install base in India as well which is really encouraging.

2:56 pm: Q: You clearly deepend some of your own internal silicon capabilities on the device, I'm curious if we should think about that as a lever or a supportive factor to gross margin that might be under appreciated?

A: In terms of the product, Apple Silicon has been an incredible game changer for us, starting with ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ and Mac as of a few years ago. We believe this is a game changer and a major competitive advantage.

We have been investing in core technologies like our own silicon, our own modem, and those do provide opportunities for cost savings and they also provide the differentiation. That gives us more control over the roadmap so there's a lot of strategic value to it but we also see those investments impacting gross margin in a positive way.

2:57 pm: Q: Thinking about how you manage AI, do you see it evolving more to edge or on-demand services versus cloud-based AI? Are you confident you've reserved sufficient data center capacity to support widespread ‌Siri‌ adoption given that you're not following the other hyperscalers and sharply increasing capex?

A: We see both as important, on device and private cloud compute, it's not an either or. We see it as a both. It's hard to estimate with precision what the demand will be, but we've done the best job we can do and either we haev or are putting capacity in for it.

2:58 pm: Q: You mentioned the 2.5 billion active device number, but ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features have only been available since the 15 Pro. Can you speak to what portion of the ‌iPhone‌ or active installed base is AI capable?

A: We don't provide that specific number but it is growing as you can imagine and we're encouraged by it.

2:58 pm: The call is now complete, and Apple is up just over 1% after hours to $261.
This article, "Apple Reports Record-Setting 1Q 2026 Results: $42.1B Profit on $143.8B Revenue" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Called Out in New 'Encrypt It Already' Campaign

2026-01-30 05:15:49

The non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched an "Encrypt It Already" campaign that calls on tech companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, and others to implement or expand end-to-end encryption on their platforms.


iCloud already provides end-to-end encryption for more than a dozen data categories by default. For users looking for additional protection, Apple offers an optional feature called Advanced Data Protection, which extends end-to-end encryption to iCloud Backup, Notes, Photos, Voice Memos, and more. But, the EFF wants Apple to go further.

For example, the EFF said Apple and Google should deliver on a promise to implement end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging. Last year, Apple said it planned to add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to the Messages app in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS updates, but it did not provide a specific timeframe.

Starting with the iOS 26.3 beta, Apple appears to be laying the groundwork for carriers to be able to support end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging.

iMessage has already supported end-to-end encryption by default since 2011.

The EFF also called on Apple and Google to offer users per-app AI permissions, so Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini can be turned off in certain apps.

The non-profit organization said it is also important how tech companies communicate new implementations of end-to-end encryption. It encouraged the companies to write blog posts that summarize key details, publish technical papers and user documentation that go into further detail, and follow best practices for data minimization.

The EFF encourages people to use Apple's feedback form to let the company know that additional end-to-end encryption support is important to them.

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