The GSMA has announced that the latest specifications for RCS include support for end-to-end encryption using the MLS (message layer security) protocol.
This is great news for a sizeable chunk of users in North America, where carrier-based messaging like SMS or RCS is commonly used, and even in places where few people use it. Knowing that the messages are encrypted is important.
Note that nothing is in place just yet, but the capability is there for Google and Apple to implement. In separate statements to the Verge, both companies have stressed that they plan to implement the changes in the near future.
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This is important, probably more important than we realize. After RCS was implemented for the iPhone without any sort of encryption layer, the governments of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint bulletin warning us not to use it and send messages using an encrypted service like WhatsApp instead. those sorts of statements don't come lightly.
Once these changes are properly implemented by Apple and Google, we can return to one app without worry if that's what we like. Or maybe the universal appeal of something like WhatsApp will have won us over. Either way, both companies will stay hard at work, telling you why their service is superior and why the other is sub-par.
That's because this was never about encryption, or even RCS, for Apple and Google. It was about locking you in with their platform.
We don't need email evidence discovered at a trial to know this, but we have it, and it pretty much says that Apple (in this case) will do whatever it takes to use iMessage to keep people from buying an Android. Google will do the same; its messaging service doesn't offer anything you couldn't find on an iPhone, but there are plenty of other software services Google offers to try and convince you to stay.
Staying is important for both companies. Apple is a business that makes money from selling you goods and services. What it offers is so well-regarded that it can charge too much, and people are still willing to buy it. You get what you pay for and all that.
Google doesn't charge for Android, but Android is a pathway to your eyeballs. Google services on an Android phone are a big part of Google's core business model, and the more people they can garner, the more money they stand to make.
For both companies, numbers are important to the bottom line.
Both Apple and Google want you to stay on their platforms and will do what it takes to keep you.
The real question is, what will Apple and Google bake into their respective messaging apps to fan the flames now that encryption isn't the issue? This could mean some awesome new features that integrate messaging with other apps and services, or it could mean something nobody seems to appreciate, like a new set of stickers.
Tight integration with a service like YouTube could make for an interesting messages app as long as it's done well — and you're able to opt out. Messages could be a reimagined Google Plus that people actually want to use.
Apple, too, can find new ways to integrate its new AI services with iMessage, and iOS users will flock to try it. If it works well, they'll keep using it.
One thing is certain: neither company is going to give up on trying to tell you why you want and need to use its stuff or how the other is behind the times.
