Mention of the long-awaited RCS end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support in the iOS 26.3 beta was spotted by Tiion-X83 on X via a carrier bundle setting that would let carriers enable E2EE for RCS messaging.
Shame Apple is doing this after all this time. For all their privacy boasts, they sure only care for those in their ecosystem feeding on their services and not others who may also benefit from it.
There was no agreed upon standard for RCS encryption until very recently AFAIK.
Well, they could have innovated by pioneering it. Either way, I meant more for RCS in general. It’s not in all countries yet. Or don’t think it is.
They actually did work with GSMA to create the standard.
Google OTOH cooked up their own encryption which they now have to change.
Ah! I see. I may have missed that. I know I can search online but where I can learn more on this? If you have any particular resource to learn from?
I read about it when it happened on the usual tech blogs.
More info here:
RCS will rely on Messaging Layer Security (MLS) Protocol, which is an IETF specification [RFC9420], for supporting end-to-end encryption. MLS is a formally verified standard that guarantees both forward secrecy and post-compromise security for messaging in 1-to-1 and group conversations. It is designed to scale efficiently with large group chats, and it supports post-quantum encryption.
Interesting. It’s still unclear if all of these are optional, though.
I want this tattooed on my body
Apple could have closed the book on modern messaging in 2013 by porting iMessages to Android. RCS would be dead in its cradle, GMessages would be a niche tool, ‘iMessage’ would be synonymous with ‘text’. But some VP thought theyd sell more iphones by letting cross-platform SMS remain broken for 15 years & retaining iMessages behind the walled garden
Apple hasnt been a pioneer or leader for well over a decade. They certainly dont care about consumers. Jobs is rolling over in his grave (or applauding, idk he was a weird guy)
Any screenshots of this? Is there a mechanism to verify your contact’s keys?
I think we’re going to have to wait until it’s out and some carriers support it. There’s no screenshots of it just someone finding reference to it in the new beta.
If Jobs had been around iMessage & Facetime would have been cross platform properly. WhatsApp (rubbish) etc would never have taken off. Apple are fools for doubling down. It’s still not too late.