Rich Communication Services (RCS) is the messaging platform available on the Messages by Google app for Android. Similar to Apple’s iMessage, RCS runs off data connectivity, not cellular connectivity. This allows it to send and receive huge messages, share higher-quality images and videos, deliver read receipts and typing indicators, and offer end-to-end encryption.
But like a chat made up of iMessage users that loses all of its great features when an Android user dares to join the group, the same thing happens when an iPhone user joins a chat session made up of RCS users. One of the features that both RCS and iMessage users lose when someone from a rival platform joins a group chat is the aforementioned end-to-end encryption.
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Google said in a blog post it published on Wednesday, “This is why Google is strongly supportive of regulatory efforts that require interoperability for large end-to-end messaging platforms.”
Google writes, “For interoperability to succeed in practice, however, regulations must be combined with open, industry-vetted, standards, particularly in the area of privacy, security, and end-to-end encryption.” And this makes sense. Otherwise, you’ll have a situation where end-to-end encryption would be a mess. “Group messages would have to be encrypted and delivered multiple times to cater for every different protocol,” the company says.
As a result, Google announced that it is supporting Messaging Layer Security (MLS) which would allow end-to-end encryption to remain in effect between two large messaging platforms like iMessage and RCS. MLS is a protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and now enables “practical interoperability across services and platforms, scaling to groups of thousands of multi-device users.”
Google plans on integrating MLS into Google Messages. The goal is to have users of the Google Messages app enjoy secure group chats with all members of a group chat regardless of the messaging app they are using.
