Privacy and control are at the center of all things communication today, and they’re a big reason thebest encrypted messaging appsare popular with their users. Google Messages wasn’t an early adopter of end-to-end encryption (E2EE), but it added support for the security standard in RCS-enabledone-on-one conversationsa couple of years back. The feature has been in the works for group chats over the last year and now seems to be making its way to the stable channel.
E2EE communication cannot be decoded by a third party, even if data packets are intercepted in transit between the sender and receiver. Google showed interest in adding the functionality to RCS group chats in Messages almost a year ago to this day. Betatesting started in December, and just a few months later, users on Twitter and members of the Android Police team are seeing a new E2EE status in theGroup detailssection for an RCS-enabled conversation.
We are seeing it on version20230329_00_RC01.phone_dynamic, just like many otherTwitter users. Reputable Android OS specialistMishaal Rahman also notesthe change is a part of this version. This suggests you may need an app update to get this feature working. The rollout appears to be widespread, but Google hasn’t made a formal announcement about it, even though the feature was amajor talking point at I/O last year.
Honestly, a year to add new features is just Google being Google, and we have seen it many times before, especially with not-so-important visual changes to user interfaces. However, security is a sensitive topic, especially considering the company’sconstant pressure to force a rivalto ditch SMS in favor of RCS.
For Google Messages users, E2EE for group chats brings the app a smidge closer to security feature parity with instant messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp. To sweeten the deal further, these now-encrypted group chats can alsosupport up to 100 participants per conversation— if you can find that many RCS users, that is.
