Google announced last month that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) will be available for RCS messages in the Google Messages app on Android soon. According to numerous reports, this feature is already rolling out to beta testers on Google Messages, which means it will likely be coming to the regular version of the app soon.
This is a pretty big deal. Adding E2EE to any form of communication adds an extra layer of security to the conversation, as well as to all messages and files in it. Encrypted messaging apps are nothing new; E2EE Conversations are available in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple's Messages, Signal, Telegram and many more apps, but the launch of E2EE in Google Messages is an important update.
Google Messages supports RCS messages, which are quickly replacing SMS as the standard text messaging protocol. RCS messaging is better than SMS in many ways, but it wasn't until Google developed the universal RCS protocol known as Chat that the technology finally became widespread. However, unlike other RCS protocols, Chat lacked E2EE. This came as a blow to users and privacy advocates who hoped RCS would be a more secure SMS replacement.
