Some lucky users already have it, ahead of wider testing in the weeks to come
It’s no secret that SMS is an aging standard — in fact, much of the last fifteen years of smartphones have centered on trying to replace it. While much of the world has moved beyond basic text messages, relying on third-party apps like WhatsApp or Signal, those of us in the US aren’t so lucky. Google has spent the last few years pushing RCS as the worthy replacement — all while trying to persuade a certain company to adopt it. In honor of SMS’s 30th anniversary, Android users are starting get a long-awaited security feature.
Today, Google announced that end-to-end encryption for group chats is entering beta testing, ensuring anyone enrolled in the Play Store program will gain a more secure experience very soon. This plan comes nearly seven months after Google announced encrypted group chats on stage at I/O, and weeks after users spotted glitched messages and strings of code pointing to an upcoming launch.
These encrypted chats works just as RCS handles messages for one-on-one conversations, automatically appearing in supported threads. Once it’s active on your device, a lock icon appears on the send icon alerting you to the change. Users will be alerted to the feature when it goes live on their device — and, in fact, based on social media, this move is happening rapidly. Late Thursday, Esper.io’s Mishaal Rahman shared screenshots showing E2EE rolling out to Messages users. It appears to be a server-side rollout paired with beta version 20221129 of the app and the latest version of Play Services, and the feature must be available to all the participants of a group for messages to be encrypted.
The timing here is very specific. Today is the 30th birthday for SMS, and in Google’s blog post celebrating the history of messaging, it also calls for the end of traditional old-school SMS. It’s all tied into the company’s ongoing “Get the Message” campaign, which calls upon Apple to adopt RCS on iOS to allow advanced, secure texting between the two platforms. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Apple has been less than enthused about the idea of adopting a universal standard alongside iMessage.
Finally, as part of today’s announcement, Google also confirmed expanded emoji reacts are coming to Messages. With this tool, you’ll be able to select any emoji for text reactions, as we initially saw a few months ago.
With encrypted group chats starting to roll out, Google Messages and its RCS functionality now feels much more feature complete. Of course, if you prefer to chat with third-party services — or you just don’t like the user experience provided by Google — there are plenty of other encrypted messaging platforms you could check out. And if you want to try your luck at getting the feature without enrolling in the beta program, grab the APK from APK Mirror or visit the Play Store below.
