Finally, texts between Android and iPhone users can be end-to-end encrypted
Key takeaways
- At long last, Android and i Phone users will be able to send each other end-to-end encrypted text messages.
- End-to-end encrypted (e2ee) messaging is an important privacy feature that makes users far less susceptible to surveillance by hackers, governments, or the companies that make these communication platforms.
- Now the industry-standard texting protocol, RCS brings features like typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, longer message lengths, and encryption to text messages.
At long last, Android and i Phone users will be able to send each other end-to-end encrypted text messages. On Monday, end-to-end encrypted messaging is starting to roll out in beta for conversations between i Phone and Android users running the most up-to-date software.
End-to-end encrypted (e2ee) messaging is an important privacy feature that makes users far less susceptible to surveillance by hackers, governments, or the companies that make these communication platforms. When these messages are sent between devices, they re encrypted while in transit, making it near-impossible for anyone else to intercept and read the message. But until now, messages sent between iPhone and Android devices could not be end-to-end encrypted (e2ee), even though iMessage has been encrypted since its launch in 2011, and Android users have been able to communicate among themselves via e2ee since 2021.
Over the years, iOS and Android users have had clunky communications Android users can t use Apple s proprietary iMessage, but Apple refused to support RCS messaging, a more sophisticated upgrade to decades-old SMS texting, since 2020. Now the industry-standard texting protocol, RCS brings features like typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, longer message lengths, and encryption to text messages. But Apple didn t support RCS until 2023, once it finally caved due to regulatory pressure.