Finally, Android and iPhone users will be able to send end-to-end encrypted text messages to each other. On Monday, we will begin rolling out a beta version of end-to-end encrypted messaging for conversations between iPhone and Android users running the latest software.
End-to-end encrypted (e2ee) messaging is an important privacy feature that makes users significantly less susceptible to surveillance by hackers, governments, or the companies that create these communication platforms. When these messages are sent between devices, they are encrypted during transmission, making it nearly impossible for others to intercept and read them. However, while iMessage has been encrypted since its launch in 2011, and Android users have been able to communicate between themselves via e2ee since 2021, messages sent between iPhones and Android devices have not previously been able to be encrypted end-to-end.
For years, iOS and Android users have had an awkward communication experience. Android users can’t use Apple’s own iMessage, but starting in 2020, Apple declined to support RCS messaging, a more sophisticated upgrade to decades-old SMS texting. Now the industry standard texting protocol, RCS provides features such as typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, long message lengths, and text message encryption. However, Apple didn’t support RCS until 2023 after it eventually folded due to regulatory pressure.
Google had asked Apple to support RCS text messages to make communication between devices more seamless. It was such a problem that people were seriously thinking about the “green bubble stigma” (referring to the color of message bubbles that iPhone users receive from Android).
Until Apple started supporting RCS, a common headache for iPhone users was when receiving messages from friends using Android, resulting in interruptions in group chats and poor quality multimedia sharing. Now, Apple’s long-awaited support for e2ee in RCS further closes the gap between the green and blue bubbles.
End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging has just begun rolling out in beta, so users may not have access to it yet. If a conversation between Google and an Apple device is encrypted, users will see a lock icon to indicate that the chat is protected.
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