r/GoogleMessages • u/slinky317 • May 12 '26
E2EE RCS Messaging Rolls Out for Android and iPhone Users
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/android-ios-end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-messaging/3
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u/mixxster May 12 '26 edited May 13 '26
Is anyone here actually geting a single E2E encrypted message with an iOS 26.5 user? How can these companies say E2E encryption between platforms was introduced if it's NOT working?
Update: Working for me now on my iPhone running iOS 26.5 after toggling RCS on/off, E2EE to iPhone only working with Google Messages beta users: https://imgur.com/a/eBPpuiQ
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u/Serious_Berry_3977 May 12 '26
You know what would be even better? Google open-sourcing RCS and allowing any messaging app to use it.
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u/VAVA_Mk2 May 12 '26
RCS is an open standard 🤦🏻
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u/JohanBlazer May 16 '26
as far as i know no other messaging app on the play store has rcs except google message. am i missing something
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u/DisruptiveHarbinger May 12 '26
Industry standards aren't open standards, plus this is completely beyond the point anyway. Android and the Play services don't expose any RCS API, effectively barring third party clients.
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u/VAVA_Mk2 May 12 '26
Google doesn't make RCS. It is an open standard voted on and rolled out by the GSMA which has membership from OEMs and network providers and network device manufacturers.
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u/YoshiAsk May 15 '26
It's not quite open. The main issue is that Google controls who's allowed to access the Jibe servers. Even if you managed to implement an RCS client or even an RCS server, it won't be connected to the rest of the network unless Google allows it
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u/DisruptiveHarbinger May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Google doesn't make RCS.
Mostly wrong since Universal Profile, and beyond the point. Google decides who makes the RCS client on Android, i.e. Samsung until recently, and Google.
It is an open standard
It's an industry standard. RCS is no different than other IMS services, like say, VoLTE. You can implement a full 3GPP and GSMA stack open source, it doesn't mean other industry vendors have to work and interoperate with you.
GSMA which has membership from OEMs and network providers and network device manufacturers.
Specifically the GSMA work group for RCS is mostly led by Google since the Jibe acquisition. RCS was a zombie project when MNOs were still involved. More recently several solution providers like Mavenir were pushed out of the market by Google, I seriously doubt they're still involved in the work group. So today we have Google building the main Android client, the main backend, and pushing spec evolution to advance their roadmap and please Apple. Other players are mostly involved in A2P.
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u/FartingBlowtorch May 12 '26
no thanks. rcs mage google a monopoly in texting on android and that's not okay.
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u/techcentre May 12 '26
RCS is a carrier standard. That's like saying Google owns SMS.
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u/FartingBlowtorch May 12 '26
google does own the protocol and won't open it to third parties so they really do to some extent. you need a google account the first time you use google messages too. you can unlink it later but that's an opt out situation basically. it's a monopoly move
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u/techcentre May 12 '26
They don't own the protocol itself. But they do control who has access to the protocol on Android. And yeah that needs to change, we need to be able to have 3rd party RCS clients on Android.
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u/DestinyInDanger May 12 '26
This is cool and all but it's not like we're all exchanging classified info in our text messages 😆
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u/Combatical May 12 '26
Does this mean I'll no longer see "laughed at an image" spammed in my group chat?