Google has started implementing end-to-end encryption of the Rich Communication Service, which is an alternative to SMS by the industry giant.
Google said it has now completed its global RCS roll-out and is moving into a new phase of end-to-end encryption. The interest in encoding has increased over the last decade in terms of indiscriminate spying on electronic communications by the NSA, especially by revelations by Edward Snowden. In particular.
The antidote to this snooping is end-to-end encryption. It is used to encrypt messages with a key unique to each user by strong cryptography. Since the key is exclusively held by each user, end-to-end encryption prevents everybody else from reading a message, including the app manufacturer, ISP or carrier, and three-letter agencies. Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage are currently E2EE messaging apps, to name just three.
For now, E2EE will only be available for people who use the Android Messages app beta version. Even then, E2EE is just working for one-to-one messages, and both senders and receivers have to activate chat functions among people using the Google app. The implementation is expected to continue in the next year.
As we know, Google launched its messaging app Allo in 2016. It also offered E2EE, but only when users created and activated a settings menu. Google killed it two years later. This time with RCS, Google said, “qualified talks will automatically upgrade to be encrypted end-to-end.”
