Apple finally brought RCS messaging to iPhones with the release of iOS 18 in September of 2024. However, it wasn’t perfect as end-to-end encryption wasn’t available between iPhones and Android devices.
In December, the FBI warned Apple and Android users to avoid RCS messaging because of the missing encryption.
But that lack is finally going away thanks to a new RCS standard created by the GSM Association (GSMA). The industry group announced today that the new standard would include end-to-end encryption (E2EE) based on the Messaging Layer Security protocol.
“That means that RCS will be the first large-scale messaging service to support interoperable E2EE between client implementations from different providers,” GSMA’s technical director, Tom Van Pelt, wrote in the association’s announcement.
EE2EE is a security feature that prevents third parties from viewing the content of your messages. Third parties can include network carriers or messaging providers.
Van Pelt noted that Apple and the GSMA had been working for years to get RCS on iPhones. The new standard was developed in collaboration with “mobile operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers,” which includes Apple.
That note is important since some carriers around the globe don’t support RCS messaging on their networks. Google has put in workarounds on Android devices.
While RCS messaging on iPhones has not supported E2EE until now, iMessage did support it between iPhones. When RCS landed on iPhones, there was no encryption, and only texts between Google Message users were getting encrypted.
Apparently, Apple will be adding E2EE RCS messaging to iOS, iPadOS, macOS and watchOS in future updates, though it’s unclear what the timeline is for those updates.
Is this the end of the green bubble? Tom’s Guide reached out to Apple for comment on the new standard and when we can expect to see it on iPhones.
“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,” a spokesperson told The Verge.
