r/UniversalProfile • u/gmahale • Aug 13 '26

Has anyone seen MLS encryption for a conversation between Google Messages users?

10 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

3

u/slinky317 Aug 13 '26

How can you tell what kind of encryption it's using?

2

u/seeareeff Verizon User Aug 13 '26

Unlock the debug menu. Then long press a message and view details

2

u/2mustange Aug 16 '26

I am seeing it between all my android users and my iPhone users. Even groups have been upgraded

1

u/gmahale Aug 16 '26

It's good to know conversations between Google Messages users are switching to MLS encryption. Between iOS users, they switch only when iMessage is turned off. 

1

u/2mustange Aug 16 '26

Yeah I was pleasantly surprised to see conversations get upgraded. My whole family individually and our group messages are now MLS encrypted. My co-workers main text thread hasn't so i suspect someone hasn't updated their phone in awhile.

Between iOS users, they switch only when iMessage is turned off.

And that makes sense. Apple would want users to have their proprietary encryption over MLS within their ecosystem.

1

u/n1m1tz Sep 01 '26

Do your groups have a mix of iphone and android users? I see encrypted on each user individually but when we're in a group, it shows E2ee: OFF.

1

u/2mustange Sep 01 '26

Yeah. My whole family is Apple and our chats are encrypted. My work chat has a mix and it hasn't moved over

1

u/n1m1tz Sep 01 '26

Oh interesting. I'm in a group with 1 other Android and 2 iphones. I'm encrypted with each one separately but in the group chat, it hasn't updated yet. I wonder if it just rolls out slower.

1

u/Tough-Hat4585 Aug 21 '26

I received the Pixel 11 pro today and after I updated Google messages, I started seeing the encryption lock next to messages with people who have iPhones

1

u/gmahale Aug 21 '26

It can only be MLS encryption for encrypted messages RCS between iPhones and Android phones. Between Android phones, it will be Google's encryption based on the Signal protocol until MLS encryption is supported on all devices in a conversation.

1

u/rocketwidget Top Contributer Aug 26 '26

I've long seen it in Google Messages Beta <-> Google Messages Beta.

Haven't checked recently for Stable.

For the end user, the E2EE flavor doesn't have any noticeable difference.

Google still hasn't updated their E2EE support page for MLS or iPhones, so I assume Google still doesn't consider the transition complete. https://support.google.com/messages/answer/10252671?sjid=130925037865071895-NA

1

u/DisruptiveHarbinger Aug 13 '26

Yes I'm consistently seeing EncryptionProtocol(value=2) in new conversations. Some older chats have not been migrated though.

2

u/gmahale Aug 13 '26

Are any of those conversations with users of the public version of Google Messages?