RCS texts on the iPhone aren’t encrypted now, but that could change

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The GSM Association, the organization that develops the RCS standard, announced Tuesday that it is working to enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for messages between Android and iPhone. E2EE prevents third parties, such as your messaging service or mobile operator, from viewing your texts.

In the announcement, Tom Van Pelt, GSMA technical director, said the next milestone for RCS Universal Profile would be the “first introduction of a standardized, interoperable message encryption between different computing platforms.” This move would help close a major gap in interoperability – especially now that Apple is on board with RCS.

Currently, not all RCS providers offer E2EE. Google Messages is one of the exceptions, as it has enabled E2EE for RCS conversations by default since last year. Apple's proprietary iMessage system has also enabled E2EE, but does not offer the same protection for RCS messages.

“We believe E2EE is a critical component of secure messaging, and we have been working with the broader ecosystem to bring cross-platform E2EE to RCS chats as quickly as possible,” said Elmar Webar, general manager at Google, on LinkedIn. “Google is committed to providing a secure and private messaging experience for its users, and we remain committed to making E2EE the default for all RCS users, regardless of platform.”

As an Android user, I'm just happy to finally be able to send high-quality photos and videos to my iPhone-equipped friends and family. E2EE would just be an added bonus.

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