One of the best mostly invisible updates in iOS 18 was Apple’s decision to finally implement the Rich Communications Services (RCS) communication protocol, something that is slowly helping to fix the generally miserable experience of texting non-iPhone users with an iPhone. The initial iOS 18 update brought RCS support to most major carriers in the US, and the upcoming iOS 18.4 update is turning it on for a bunch of smaller prepaid carriers like Google Fi and Mint Mobile.
Now that Apple is on board, iPhones and their users can also benefit from continued improvements to the RCS standard. And one major update was announced today: RCS will now support end-to-end encryption using the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, a standard finalized by the Internet Engineering Task Force in 2023.
“RCS will be the first large-scale messaging service to support interoperable E2EE between client implementations from different providers,” writes GSMA Technical Director Tom Van Pelt in the post announcing the updates. “Together with other unique security features such as SIM-based authentication, E2EE will provide RCS users with the highest level of privacy and security for stronger protection from scams, fraud and other security and privacy threats. ”
Apple confirmed to The Verge and other outlets that it plans to support the updated RCS standard and end-to-end encryption over RCS “in future software updates.” The company wasn’t specific about a timeline, though—the change could come to an update to iOS 18 in the next few months, or it could be held for the iOS 19 update that Apple will probably release this fall.
Google has supported end-to-end encryption over RCS for years now, but only for one-to-one conversations or group chats between Android users using the Google Messages app.
Apple’s iMessage service has supported end-to-end encryption since its creation, and it was one of the selling points of the service for the privacy-minded. Apple improved that encryption last year, adding a second layer of encryption (known as PQ3) on top of the encryption the service was already using. Alternate platform-agnostic texting services like Signal, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger also offer end-to-end encryption.