Apple has announced plans to support a new Rich Communication Services (RCS) specification that includes end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for messages exchanged over this protocol in upcoming software updates. An Apple spokesperson highlighted the company’s commitment to privacy and security, stating that E2EE has been a fundamental feature of iMessage and expressing excitement about leading a collaborative industry effort to enhance RCS with this technology. The GSM Association (GSMA), which oversees the development of the RCS standard, has been working since September of last year to implement E2EE for messaging between Android and iPhone devices. Although the GSMA has just released the updated RCS specification with E2EE support, it’s unclear how long it will take for Apple to integrate these updates into its software, but it has confirmed that improvements are on the way.
Apple previously incorporated RCS with the release of iOS 18.1, which transitioned SMS messaging to RCS for communications with Android users. This update introduced several features, such as high-resolution media sharing and read receipts, but notably lacked E2EE, a standard feature of iMessage. The addition of E2EE in cross-platform RCS messages would significantly enhance security by ensuring that third parties, including mobile carriers and messaging services, cannot access the contents of users’ texts. Currently, Google Messages provides E2EE by default for RCS messages, but this security applies only to conversations between Google Messages users, leaving exchanges with iPhone users or other RCS clients unencrypted.
As Apple works to implement E2EE support in RCS messaging, users can anticipate a more secure messaging experience across platforms.
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