Messaging between iPhones and Android devices might become a lot more secure soon. The GSMA, a nonprofit that develops the Rich Communication Services standard, announced Friday that it’s adding interoperable encryption to RCS messaging, allowing for end-to-end encryption between different providers.
Both Apple and Google collaborated with the GSMA on the protocol. According to The Verge, both companies will implement it. “These procedures ensure that messages and other content such as files remain confidential and secure as they travel between clients,” the GSMA wrote online.
RCS is a messaging protocol that replaces Short Message Service (SMS). It has a lot of the same features as iMessage, including typing indicators, high-resolution media sharing and usually end-to-end encryption. But when Apple brought RCS messaging to iPhones with iOS 18 in September, it lacked the encryption that iMessage has.
“End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning,” an Apple spokesperson told The Verge. “We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.”
“We’ve always been committed to providing a secure messaging experience, and Google Messages users have had end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) RCS messaging for years,” a Google spokesperson said in an email to CNET. “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.”
Apple did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment. It is unclear when E2EE on RCS will arrive on iPhones.
The GSMA said in September that it was working to enable end-to-end encryption between iPhones and Android devices. Then in December, the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned people about a cyberattack that was targeting unencrypted messages between iPhone and Android devices.
“Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication,” Jeff Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the CISA, told NBC News at the time.
For more on iOS 18, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18.3.2, iOS 18.3.1 and iOS 18.3. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet.
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