Apple joined the RCS bandwagon last year, giving its users the ability to exchange rich text messages with their Android counterparts. The only problem? Those messages are not encrypted, exposing them to security risks. Now, Apple will soon eliminate that obstacle.
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In a new announcement, Apple said it will add support for encrypted RCS messages in future updates to iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, and WatchOS. This means that any rich text messages exchanged between Apple and Android users will automatically be secured through the latest industry standard.
RCS with E2EE
That industry standard comes from the GSM Association, which announced on Friday new specifications for RCS that include end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Thanks to the new standard, RCS will be the first major messaging format to support this type of encryption among different providers, including Apple and Google.
The latest standard is based on a protocol known as Messaging Layer Security (MLS). With MLS in place, RCS messages and their rich content remain confidential and secure as they’re routed from one device to another. By adding other security features such as SIM-based authentication, the end-to-end encryption will help keep RCS messages private, protecting people from scams, fraud, and other threats, the GSMA said.
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“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,” Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer said in a statement shared with The Verge and other media outlets. “We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, and WatchOS in future software updates.”
How risky is an unencrypted text message?
Last December, the FBI and CISA advised mobile users to stick with messaging apps that use encryption by default. The warning came in response to reports that China had hacked AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies to spy on customers.
The new E2EE is part of a larger release by the GSMA known as RCS Universal Profile 3.0, which offers other enhancements beyond encryption. Among those are improved support for audio messaging, easier ways to manage subscriptions from businesses, expanded spam detection, and better ways to engage with chatbots.
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Apple’s default iMessage service has long encrypted text messages. But that encryption works only on messages exchanged with other Apple users using the same format. On the flip side, the Google Messages app also encrypts texts by default. But again, that encryption holds only for texts swapped with fellow Android users.
As adopted by Apple last year with the launch of iOS 18, RCS is a messaging standard released by Google a few years ago. Designed to replace SMS messaging, RCS allows texts between iPhones and Android devices to include larger file attachments, higher-resolution photos and videos, audio messages, read receipts, typing indicators, more types of emojis, and better group chats.
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Apple had long resisted calls to enable RCS but finally gave in amid demand for greater interoperability between iPhone and Android. In the US, the standard had been available only with the three major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile), many regional providers, and a few MVNOs. But recently, support has expanded to more providers, including Google Fi and T-Mobile MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) such as Boost Mobile and Mint Mobile.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
