New RCS Universal Profile 3.0 Adds End-to-End Encryption, Apple and Google Both Included

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From the moment that RCS went live in iOS 18 and the world of iPhone owners joined the party that we’ve had over here on Android, there has been one missing piece to make this a truly great cross-platform messaging experience. I’m talking about end-to-end encryption (E2EE), of course, which we were hoping would arrive without much of a wait. As it turns out, we should end up seeing that final piece show up within the year.

The GSMA announced today that the Universal Profile 3.0 specifications (here), which are the standards for which RCS operates, are now set and they include end-to-end encryption across platforms. Yes, that means encryption of messages between iOS and Android.

While this is major news for security and privacy fans, this does not mean that your messages between Android and iPhone devices will be encrypted just yet. Instead, this is simply an announcement that the new RCS specs are set and that everyone can now prepare for them. We’ll need Apple and iOS to implement this new standard, as well as Google.

Both Apple and Google confirmed to The Verge that they are indeed ready to do so, with Apple confirming that they’ll make it ready in the next version of iOS (plus iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS), which should be iOS 19. Google simply stated that they are committed to a secure messaging experience and will “work as quickly as possible” to make this happen cross-platform.

Great news.

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