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Apple has promised to adopt RCS in 2024, and Google welcomes the company’s contribution despite not adopting its encrypted extension for the standard.
The Rich Communications Services messaging standard will finally come to iPhone later in 2024, but Apple won’t be using Google’s end-to-end encrypted extension. Despite that, Google has shared a message of welcome for Apple.
Google shared a statement with AppleInsider:
“Everyone deserves to communicate with each other in ways that are modern and secure, no matter what phone they have. Thats why we have worked closely with the mobile industry to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and we’re happy to see Apple take their first step today by coming on board to embrace RCS. We welcome Apple’s participation in our ongoing work with GSMA to evolve RCS and make messaging more equitable and secure, and look forward to working with them to implement this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone.”
Google has clearly won the battle after bashing Apple repeatedly for sticking to SMS as an alternative to iMessage. Now that Apple is working with the GSMA to enhance RCS, Google has everything to win.
Apple says it intends to work with the GSMA to add encryption to the RCS Universal Profile — something Google hasn’t been able to do in all its years sponsoring the standard. Instead, Google had to create an extension of RCS that only works with Google Messages to enable end-to-end encryption.
As Google said, Apple joining in the work on RCS will be a win for all users. Apple’s involvement will likely be the lifeline the Google-backed standard needs, saving it from the ever-increasing Google graveyard.
