RCS texts on the iPhone aren’t encrypted now, but that could change

The GSM Association, the organization that develops the RCS standard, said on Tuesday it’s working to enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on messages sent between Android and iPhone. E2EE prevents third parties, like your messaging service or cell carrier, from viewing your texts.

In the announcement, GSMA technical director Tom Van Pelt said the next milestone for RCS Universal Profile is the “first deployment of standardized, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms.” The move would help bridge a major gap in interoperability — especially now that Apple’s on board with RCS.

On Monday, Apple’s iOS 18 update replaced SMS with RCS messaging for texts sent to users on Android. While the change doesn’t get…

Continue reading…