RCS Encryption: A Leap Towards Secure and Interoperable Messaging
www.gsma.com
Tom Van Pelt, Technical Director, GSMA In my last post, ‘RCS Now in iOS: a New Chapter for Mobile Messaging‘, I celebrated the integration of Rich Communication Services (RCS) with Apple’s iOS 18, a culmination of years of collaboration across mobile operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers. Today, I am pleased to announce the next milestone: […]

(…) That means that RCS will be the first large-scale messaging service to support interoperable E2EE between client implementations from different providers. 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.

These enhancements to support E2EE are the cornerstone of the new RCS Universal Profile release. In addition to E2EE, RCS Universal Profile 3.0 makes it easier for users to engage with businesses over RCS messaging through a richer deep link format and includes additional smaller enhancements such as improved codecs for audio messaging and easier management of subscriptions with business messaging senders. In addition, RCS continues to support a range of interoperable messaging functions between iOS and Android users, such as group messaging, the ability to share high-resolution media, and see read receipts and typing indicators.