Finally, texts between Android and iPhone users can be encrypted end-to-end

Finally, Android and iPhone users will be able to send end-to-end encrypted text messages to each other. on monday, Encrypted end-to-end The messaging app has started beta for conversations between iPhone and Android users using the latest software.

End-to-end encrypted messages (e2ee). It is an important privacy feature that makes users less vulnerable to surveillance by hackers, governments, or the companies that make these communication platforms. When these messages are sent between devices, they are encrypted during transmission, making it nearly impossible for anyone else to intercept and read the message. But until now, messages sent between iPhones and Android devices have not been able to be end-to-end (e2ee) encrypted, even though iMessage has been encrypted since it was launched. He releases In 2011, Android users were able to do just that Communicates Between them via e2ee since 2021.

Over the years, iOS and Android users have had legacy connections — Android users can’t use Apple-owned iMessage, but Apple has refused to support RCS messaging, a more sophisticated upgrade to decades-old SMS, since 2020. Now an industry-standard text messaging protocol, RCS offers features like typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, longer message lengths, and text message encryption. But Apple won’t support RCS until 2023, once upon a time Finally collapsed because of Organizational pressure.

I had Google Apple urged To support RCS texting to make communication between their devices more seamless – this was an issue that people honestly thought about.”Green bubble stigma“, referring to the color of the message bubbles that iPhone users receive from Android devices.

Until Apple started supporting RCS, it was common for iPhone users to get text messages from their friends who used Android, which could disrupt group chats, or lead to poor quality multimedia sharing. Now, Apple’s long-awaited support for e2ee on RCS is helping bridge the gap between the green and blue bubbles.

The end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging service has only started rolling out in beta, so users may not have access to it yet. If the conversation between Google and Apple devices is encrypted, users will see a lock icon indicating that the chat is protected.