Apple has announced that its Messages app will support the RCS messaging standard in iOS 18. RCS offers more advanced features compared to traditional SMS, including higher-quality media, typing indicators, and end-to-end encryption. This move will improve messaging between iOS and Android devices, which currently rely on the less capable SMS protocol. Apple’s decision to add RCS support likely comes in response to pressure from Google, Samsung, and European regulators who have pushed for better cross-platform messaging. Overall, this change will bring the iPhone’s messaging capabilities more in line with the Android experience.
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RCS is encrypted tho
RCS can be encrypted, but it’s optional. The reason is that RCS was originally designed to be run by the network operators who are generally required to be able to log all the messages they handle.
It’s a shame Apple decided not to implement e2ee like Google did.
This is an older article, but there is still no movement. https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/234352/apples-flavor-of-rcs-wont-support-googles-end-to-end-encryption-extension
Apple and Google are working together as part of the GMSA committee on RCS to add encryption to the standard, instead of using Google’s proprietary incompatible extension for e2ee.
It’s probably going to take a while due to the whole process needed to add it to the standard, which is also why RCS in general is a terrible idea: you can’t really innovate if everything you want to improve has to go through this whole layer of bureaucracy.
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I didn’t know MLS and Signal were Google proprietary. TIL. Thanks.
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Thanks for your reply. I understand a lot better now.
It’ll probably take several years for them to switch over to MLS. Hopefully other messaging apps like Telegram and Threema can also utilize it just for crossplatform purposes.
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I’m pretty sure Signal is not Google proprietary, and the person you replied to didn’t say it was.
The comment said it was proprietary and uses signal and MLS.
Maybe I misunderstood.
The google proprietary part is e2ee on RCS that use signal and MLS. It is not a standard in the RCS specs.