At some point this year, Google and Apple will both release updates to their messaging apps which will completely change the texting landscape. It’s an upgrade that’s many years overdue, and will be the first time WhatsApp has genuine competition for secure, cross-platform messaging between Androids and iPhones without any strings attached.
There are other over-the-top messengers of course, including Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Signal. But they all have those strings. Meta’s metadata overreach, Telegram’s lack of default end-to-end encryption and Signal’s limited install base.
What has been missing in the space is secure stock messaging. The seminal RCS upgrade was announced by mobile standards setter GSMA last month, and both Google and Apple have confirmed they will update their messaging apps to the new standard, fully encrypting texts between operating systems for the first time.
This comes in the wake of Salt Typhoon, which saw Chinese hackers maraud through U.S. networks stealing data and content, exposing the security holes in text messaging, and prompting the FBI to warn Americans to stop sending texts.
Google latest update to its Messages app is the next step towards aligning with iMessage, presenting a much more aligned user experience regardless of which type of mobile phone you have chosen. As soon as RCS is upgraded it becomes a player in the secure messaging space. And now, as spotted by Android Authority, Google is making it “easier to see which of your contacts are using RCS.”
This will be critical because I know all my WhatsApp and Signal messages are secure — that applies to every one of my contacts in the app. The same is true of Signal and even Facebook Messenger. Critically, it’s not true of Telegram and it’s not yet true of RCS.
Android Authority tore down a pre-release Messages APK to find Google “preparing new RCS labels for contacts,” by tagging each name. More critically, “Messages is also tweaking the contact list UI to differentiate RCS-enabled users by color.”
This will take the guess work out of starting a chat with a contact. Currently you have “no indication of whether a conversation you’re hoping to start would use RCS or SMS.” That will change. And perhaps the most important tweak of all: “The feature even works to identify iPhone users who have enabled RCS messaging.”
Color-wise, this isn’t quite as simple as the blue bubble / green bubble differentiation that has become such a key part of the iMessage offering. Instead, “RCS users’ names are tinted using Material You accents, while SMS-only contacts appear in plain white.”
This is pre-release and so we don’t know when it will appear. Given we also don’t yet have a timeline on full RCS encryption, it’s less important than it will become. I don’t advise using RCS over WhatsApp or other secure messages now, but that will change when it’s upgraded. I’m hoping that’s done in time for iOS 19 in the fall.
