Google tests end-to-end encrypted chats in messaging app

Nagpur: Google has announced that it is testing end-to-end encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services) group chats, which will be made available to some open beta users in the coming weeks.
According to the blog post, one-on-one texts sent via Google Messages will be encrypted, making them private and secure, and visible only to the sender and recipient.

“RCS not only makes texting more secure; it also improves the experience,” Google wrote in a blog post. “SMS texting lacks many of the capabilities of smartphones, but RCS allows you to send and receive high-quality photos and videos, see real-time typing indicators and read receipts, name group conversations, add or remove contacts from group chats, and text over Wi-Fiathis list goes on,” it continued.

Google has been urging manufacturers and carriers to use RCS, a boosted version of SMS with features such as typing indicators, delivery, and read receipts. It has also started campaigns to persuade Apple to use this standard in its own Messages app. “With the exception of Apple, all of the major mobile carriers and manufacturers have adopted RCS as the standard today.” “Apple refuses to adopt RCS and continues to rely on SMS when iPhone users message Android users, which means their texting is stuck in the 1990s,” Neena Budhiraja, group product manager for the Messages app, wrote in a blog post. “Hopefully, Apple will #GetTheMessage so we don’t have to keep waiting for the whole ace green-versus-blue bubble” thing to be removed,” it continued.