Google would like to offer end-to-end encryption for all conversations by the end of the year.
With Google Messages, the American company offers a showcase of first choice to the RCS messaging protocol.
The RCS, carried by Google, improves its security
As a reminder, the RCS is the successor of the SMS and allows users with a compatible smartphone to chat with a single correspondent or a whole group, but also to share content such as GIFs or videos. The standard is supported by many operators and manufacturers today.
Google has worked to make the RCS more secure and has offered end-to-end encryption since 2020, only for discussions with a single interlocutor.
Encryption in groups is a more complex project, Google having to offer a technology supported both by its messaging client, but also by Samsung Messages, another messaging system supporting RCS.
Google is now testing the encryption of RCS group conversations
However, things seem to be improving. On the Reddit thread r/GoogleMessages, several users were surprised to see a message in their group chat, telling them that a message had arrived encrypted in their transcript.
By digging a little, they realized that the RCS group discussions were indeed end-to-end encrypted by Google Messages.
Only problem for the moment: the encryption option must be activated for all users, so that the protection of the messages is functional, which was not the case here and led to an error. It is currently not possible to force encryption of messaging groups and it is likely that Google Messages will enable this setting by default when the feature is rolled out to all users.
Google had promised that the deployment of conversation encryption would begin by the end of this year 2022, at least in beta version, so it is now done. The launch to the general public should, meanwhile, take a few more months, via an update of the application.
The complete encryption of conversations will also provide a strong argument against Apple, which still refuses for the moment to adopt RCS in iMessage.
Source : 9to5Google
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