nickodiaz@sbcglobal.net (Nickolas Diaz)
2025-03-14 16:06:00
www.androidcentral.com
What you need to know
- The GSM Association announced that its upcoming RCS standard update, RCS Universal Profile 3.0, will bring end-to-end encryption to messaging.
- This update works like the experience users would have in Google Messages where texts and media sent between parties remains between them.
- Apple confirms that it will bring encryption to its RCS support for iOS, meaning better communication between it and Android.
- Apple rolled out RCS support for texts with Android via iOS 18 last year, but it notably lacked this encryption measure.
Today (Mar. 14), reports announce Apple will move forward with a security improvement for its RCS messaging with Android devices.
It was announced in a GSMA press release that the RCS standard will soon roll out E2EE (end-to-end encryption) measures for RCS messages (via The Verge). GSMA’s technical director, Tom Van Pelt, states this update will ensure that messages and files, such as those you’d like to remain confidential, stay secure between the parties involved in the messaging instance.
Van Pelt adds this update means the RCS standard will be “the first large-scale messaging service to support interoperable E2EE between client implementations from different providers.”
GSMA says its RCS Universal Profile 3.0 update will not only bring more security to users’ messages but also protections against instances of fraud and scams. The Association states it will “continue to support” functions between iOS and Android, like group messaging, high-resolution media sharing, read receipts, and typing indicators.
However, this update means Apple’s iPhones should finally have encrypted texts between them and Android. In a statement to The Verge, Shane Bauer, an Apple spokesperson, informed the publication that it will “add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.”
Apple is said to have been a strong advocate for E2EE in RCS alongside GSMA’s work with “mobile operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers.” The company even stated it has “helped lead a cross-industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile,” per The Verge.
There’s a long history of Google campaigning for Apple to bring RCS support so Android can better communicate with iPhone owners. When an EU investigation into whether or not Apple’s iMessage fell within “Gatekeeper” status, the company went ahead and announced it would bring RCS anyway.
iOS 18 brought RCS support between iPhones and Android nearly a year later. The update improved media sharing between users and most of what the GSMA discussed in its press release. However, the rollout lacked something substantial: encryption. What’s of importance is that the RCS standard never actually had E2EE wrapped inside. It was Google that decided to add that strong level of encryption for user messages.
When Apple worked to bring RCS, it didn’t choose to work on encryption itself — and it surely didn’t collaborate with Google to do it. Instead, we’ve got its collaboration with the GSM Association, as well as other companies to bring E2EE to the RCS standard as a whole.
Apple is set to bring the security measure to its iOS users soon, but how soon is still up in the air.
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