Google is testing end-to-end encryption for RCS group chats

Google said on Friday it had begun testing end-to-end encryption for RCS-based group conversations in its Messages messaging app.

The American tech giant explained in a blog post, in which it celebrated the birth of SMS and called it at the same time, that testing the new encryption feature will be available to a select group of users participating in its open beta program in the coming weeks.

Today’s announcement comes after a number of Reddit users noticed back in October that Google was testing end-to-end encryption in group Messages chats. And now it looks like the test is official.

Google, which also owns the Android operating system that dominates the smartphone market in the world, began testing the end-to-end encryption feature for individual RCS conversations in 2020. And in June of last year, the feature was officially launched for all Messages users.

Google has been seeking for years to push smartphone manufacturers and telecommunications companies to adopt RCS technology, which is superior to SMS text messages in that it allows sharing photos and videos, displaying the writing indicator and the reading indicator, in addition to other features that make it similar to popular instant messaging applications. Such as the WhatsApp application of the Mita company.

During the past period, Google has worked hard to persuade Apple to adopt the technology in its messaging application, with the aim of enabling Android users to communicate with iPhone users.

So far, it seems that Apple has not responded to Google’s attempts, which prompted the latter to address Apple directly in its post today, where it said: “Currently, all major telecom companies and phone makers are adopting RCS as the standard except for Apple. Apple refuses to embrace rich communication services and continues to rely on SMS text messages when iPhone users communicate with Android phones, and this means that messaging is still stuck in the nineties of the last century. Then she added that she hoped that Apple would understand the message so that she would not have to wait any longer.

It is noteworthy that Google tried to bridge the gap in the user experience between the Android and iOS systems by adding features, such as support for feedback for iPhone messages.