Google announced that starting this week, all RCS conversations in Google Messages, including group chats (launched in beta earlier this year), are now end-to-end encrypted.
Google has been promoting RCS for several years now, the new SMS sending standard intended to replace SMS and MMS. Major players’ adoption of the standard has been the biggest hurdle, with Apple notorious for its resistance despite pressure from Google. Fortunately, this could perhaps change in the coming months thanks to the new European Digital Market Act, which will force companies to create cohesion with the various messaging services.
To go even further, Google has announced that it is making its Messages by Google application more secure thanks to improvements made to RCS. The company says it will now make RCS the default standard for users of the Messages app, whether new or old. Additionally, end-to-end encryption for group chats is now fully rolled out to all RCS users.
Read also – Google Messages: your conversations will soon be end-to-end encrypted on all platforms
Google will improve the security of your conversations with the RCS
With the general rollout of its RCS, Google is taking this big step to “ensure that more people benefit from this increased security”. Indeed, Google assures users that their conversations remain between them and the other party or parties, that is, even the company cannot access it. E2E encryption for 1:1 conversations was launched in June 2021, while testing for E2EE groups began in January.
Note that RCS will remain disabled if you previously disabled them, but users will have the option to disable them at any time in the Messages > RCS chats menu.
Google is getting closer to some of the best messaging apps for Android by making the RCS standard increasingly ubiquitous. RCS offers delivery receipts, larger attachments, typing indicators, reacting to messages using emojis, but above all improved security.