Apple To Introduce Encrypted RCS Messaging

The GSM Association (GSMA), the leading global trade body for mobile operators, has announced that its latest specifications for Rich Communication Services (RCS) will support end-to-end encryption across different messaging platforms.

Apple, which only adopted RCS six months ago—despite its eight-year rollout on Android—is now touting its role in advancing encryption standards.

This development means that encrypted messaging will now be possible between built-in messaging apps on Android and iPhone, Fortune’s Data Sheet journalist David Meyer reported.

Apple, which only adopted RCS six months ago—despite its eight-year rollout on Android—is now touting its role in advancing encryption standards.

“End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross-industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA,” Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer told The Verge.

This advancement comes at a time when private communication is increasingly valuable.

While third-party apps like Signal have long offered cross-platform encryption, many users tend to rely on the default messaging apps that come preinstalled on their devices. With this update, RCS messaging could finally become a more secure, mainstream alternative to SMS.