RCS messaging: Apple promises to come to an end-to-end encryption

The Rich Communication Standard (RCS) now supports end-to-end encryption at the protocol level. The GSMA industry association announced on Friday. Part of the latest RCS specification (RCS Universal Profile 3.0) is also an end-to-end encryption that relies on the messaging layer security protocol (MLS) as a cryptography standard.

This enables safe and confidential shipping of text messages and files between clients on different platforms, explained the GSMA. RCS is also the first large messaging service that enables “interoperable end-to-end encryption” between the clients of various providers.

Apple promises support-comes via iOS update

Apple announced in parallel to support this in its operating systems iOS, Ipados, MacOS and Watchos with “future software updates”. The company is pleased to be involved in the RCS specification in the introduction of the end-to-end encryption-as part of an industry-wide initiative, Apple emphasized in a statement Compared to US media like The Verge.

When the implementation takes place exactly and how encrypted RCS messages are identified in Apple's news app, remains open for the time being. In contrast to the blue iMessages (with end-to-end encryption), the unprotected RCS messages have so far been green-as well as SMS.

In the latest beta of iOS 18.4 there does not seem to be a support for it, as developers report. The Google Messages pre-installed on many Android devices supports end-to-end encryption, but only in communication between two Google messages-and not across platforms between iOS and Android.

Apple didn't want to know about RCS for a long time

Apple's iOS has only supported the exchange of RCS messages since the latest version 18. The manufacturer had obviously refused to integrate the standard for years, but then suddenly admitted-shortly before the EU Commission made its decision as to whether iMessage is a central platform service and should be regulated accordingly. In the past year, the Commission finally ruled that IMESSAGE was not a gatekeeper service. Accordingly, iMessage does not have to meet interoperability requirements.