“End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA,” said an Apple spokesperson. “We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.”
The GSM Association (GSMA), the organization responsible for developing the RCS standard, only announced the new RCS specification with E2EE support today, so it’s not clear how long it will take Apple to incorporate the updated profile into its software. But at least it’s coming.
Apple adopted RCS with last year’s release of iOS 18.1, which replaced SMS with RCS messaging for texts sent to Android users. While the update brings improvements such as high-resolution media sharing, read receipts, and typing indicators, it notably lacks E2EE – something Apple’s proprietary iMessage system already supports.
The implementation of E2EE for cross-platform RCS messages would prevent third parties, such as messaging services or cell carriers, from viewing the content of texts. This added layer of security would also prevent state surveillance of citizens’ RCS communications.
This article, “Apple to Support Encrypted RCS Messaging in Future Software Update” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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