iPhone RCS messaging with Android will soon be more secure

In what looks like another case of Apple dragging its feet, if you’re an iPhone user who sends messages to Android users through RCS, you’ll be pleased to learn that your messages will soon be encrypted. This is according to an announcement by the GSM Association that will enable E2EE RCS messages between iPhone and Android users.

Encrypted RCS messages

This is thanks to the latest RCS standard that includes E2EE based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol. It basically enables interoperable encryption between different platform providers. E2EE plays a crucial role in messaging because it prevents anyone from reading messages.

When someone intercepts a message in transit, encryption prevents them from reading it without the decryption key. Before this update, the Google Messages app encrypted RCS messages. However, this didn’t work between Apple and Android users, leaving thousands of messages vulnerable.

Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer released a statement saying, “End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA. We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.”

Apple’s adoption of RCS

For a long time, Apple resisted the adoption of RCS. Before that, Apple followed in BlackBerry’s footsteps and introduced its own iMessage platform. It functioned similarly to other messaging apps like WhatsApp. Users could send regular text messages and media files. However, it only worked between iOS users.

Apple eventually caved in and announced RCS support with iOS 18. However, unlike RCS messages on Android sent via Google Messages, Apple’s support was far from complete. It was as if the company simply adopted it just to say they did.

In any case, it’s great that Apple RCS messages finally support encryption when sent to Android devices and vice versa. Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez told The Verge, “We’re excited to have this updated specification from GSMA and work as quickly as possible with the mobile ecosystem to implement and extend this important user protection to cross-platform RCS messaging.”