Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A press word from Samsung re-highlighted how encryption is out there just for Android-to-Android RCS chats.
- Google Messages on Android helps end-to-end encryption by way of a customized implementation on high of RCS Common Profile, which lacks the function.
- Thus, RCS chats between Android and iPhone customers are usually not end-to-end encrypted, which is an enormous shortcoming for privateness and safety.
It was an extended wait, however iPhone customers lastly jumped onto the RCS bandwagon with the discharge of iOS 18 in September this yr. RCS permits iPhone customers to seamlessly textual content Android customers with high-quality media, textual content reactions, richer group chats, and extra. However it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for RCS, as there stays an enormous caveat when Android customers ship an RCS message to iPhone customers, which is the shortage of encryption.
Samsung shared a press word on the way it labored with Google to speed up RCS adoption. The press word reiterates a lot of what we already know, however the high-quality print on the backside of it caught our consideration greater than the rest.
Now with the newest model of iOS supporting RCS, the advantages can be found past the Android ecosystem when messaging throughout platforms.*
* All members of a chat will need to have RCS enabled. Requires Google Messages for Android customers and iOS 18 or later for iPhone customers. Encryption is just obtainable for Android-to-Android communication.
As Samsung highlights once more, encryption in RCS messages is just obtainable when Android customers chat with one another by way of Google Messages. If Android customers chat with iPhone customers by way of RCS, both by way of DMs or group chats, then the dialog isn’t encrypted. When iPhone customers chat with one another, they skip RCS and undertake iMessage as a substitute, which can be encrypted.
Google’s implementation of end-to-end encryption on Google Messages is on high of the RCS Common Profile, because the Common Profile doesn’t embody end-to-end encryption assist. GSMA, the group behind RCS, talked about in September that it’s working in direction of bringing interoperable end-to-end encryption to the Common Profile to maintain all RCS messages personal and safe.
Nevertheless, we appear to be nonetheless a while away from this future. Till then, it’s best to keep in mind that cross-platform chats between iOS and Android customers stay unencrypted as they did within the SMS period. Given how necessary RCS has turn out to be up to now few months, we hope there will probably be excellent news to share on this entrance quickly.