Last Wednesday, the GSM Association (GSMA) released new specifications for the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol that now include support for cross-platform end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Text messages sent between iPhones and Android devices can expect E2EE soon.
RCS is a long-standing project aimed at providing SMS-style cross-platform communication with features that are so richer in some ways that messaging apps like WhatsApp might resemble them.
These features may include group messaging, typing indicators, read receipts, and file-sharing capabilities.
While many other Android handset makers had adopted RCS over the years, Apple had remained as the main exception until it finally gave in with iOS 18 last year.
Since then, most of the fundamental RCS features have become available for cross-platform messaging, except E2EE, up to now.
The selling point
E2EE is a method of encryption that makes it possible for only the sender and recipient to access the content of a message. For the tech industry, such a privacy-retaining assurance gives customers confidence that their messages could not be read by any eyes – and that’s a huge selling point for them.
E2EE has existed since the advent of iMessage in 2011, but that was available only between iOS devices; WhatsApp E2EE was completed in 2016, also only working between WhatsApp users.
So far, Google has had some success in the implementation of E2EE through its Messages app, but such a feature was a standalone implementation separate from the RCS protocol itself.
The implementation of encrypted message delivery between not only different clients but across entirely different platforms faces its own peculiar challenges, and thus the GSMA’s universal profile intervenes and provides for standardized specifications for interoperable RCS messaging that is consistent across devices, networks, and operators.
The E2EE system in the new RCS Universal Profile 3.0, founded on the cryptographic Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, is a pivotal part of the interoperable puzzle, which will finally enable iPhone and Android users to send messages securely using their devices’ default messaging app.
“Which is to say that RCS will be the first large-scale messaging service to ever support interoperable E2EE between different client implementations from different providers,” the GSMA’s technical director Tom Van Pelt said in a statement.
E2EE with other unique security features such as SIM-based authentication will offer RCS users the highest levels of privacy and security from scams, fraud, and many other security and privacy threats.”
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