When RCS messaging became available on the iPhone with the rollout of iOS 18, the technical director of the GSM Association teased that the next major milestone for the messaging standard is the addition of interoperable end-to-end encryption.

Ironically, a major uncertainty is E2EE itself. This is now being probed by the UK government, which has decided to use Apple as its test case in a campaign to introduce backdoors into the encryption used in iCloud services. So far, Apple is resisting, choosing to disable security rather than allow surveillance. Talks are reportedly ongoing.

‘We will add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS in future software updates.’

Phone users will soon be able to send end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to Android users. This is thanks to the new RCS standard, Universal Profile 3.0, which includes end-to-end encryption based on the Messaging Layer Security protocol.

Apple has announced that it will soon support encrypted RCS messages between iPhones and Android, a welcome upgrade.

The new end-to-end encryption comes as part of a broader release by GSMA called RCS Universal Profile 3.0, featuring improved audio messaging support, enhanced spam detection capabilities, and better engagement with chatbots.

Apple has announced that it will add support for end-to-end encryption to RCS messaging on iOS, although there are few details about when this will happen.

With Apple bringing end-to-end encryption to RCS on iOS, it looks like the messaging war between the two tech giants will finally be over.

Now that Apple is on board, iPhones and their users can also benefit from continued improvements to the RCS standard. And one major update was announced today: RCS will now support end-to-end encryption using the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol,