Now that RCS has finally arrived in iOS, the GSM Association, the organisation behind RCS, is working on securing conversations between Android and iPhone users by enabling end-to-end encryption on messages sent between these devices, ensuring no third party can intercept or view text messages.
The announcement comes from Tom Van Pelt, technical director at the GSMA. Pelt also adds that implementing end-to-end encryption in RCS “will be the first deployment of standardised, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms, addressing significant technical challenges such as key federation and cryptographically-enforced group membership. Additionally, users will benefit from stronger protections from scams, fraud, and other security threats.”
End-to-end encryption isn’t new to RCS, but so far, only the responsibility for protecting messages has been shouldered by RCS providers through Google Messages, which started enabling end-to-end encryption for RCS conversations by default in 2023. Apple’s iMessage also supports end-to-end encryption out of the box, but it is not for RCS.
Implementing end-to-end encryption within the RCS protocol will make enabling encrypted, cross-platform RCS conversations easy. This will also mean a larger ecosystem of devices with encrypted communications out of the box.
Apple’s decision to add RCS to iMessage in iOS 18 is big, regardless of whether the iPhone maker acknowledges it. iOS users can now send high-res media, read receipts and type indicators when talking to their Android-wielding contacts. Now that Apple is finally on board with RCS, this announcement and subsequent progress will help cover a major interoperability gap for RCS.
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