Google’s RCS Archival feature will let employers see your chats

Google is rolling out a new RCS message archival feature for fully managed Pixel phones. The system is designed to help companies comply with strict rules around record-keeping and legal requests for employee communication. But there is something employees should know: if you use a Pixel as your work phone, your RCS chats may be visible to your employer.

RCS is the modern version of texting on Android. It supports features like read receipts, typing indicators, and end-to-end encryption. Until now, it has been hard for companies to archive or keep a record of RCS messages because older tools relied on carriers. That does not work with encrypted messaging because they can’t be intercepted.

However, with Google’s new Android RCS Archival system on Pixels, approved archival apps can plug directly into Google Messages on a work-managed device.

When your company enables the feature, the archival app gets notified not only when you send or receive an RCS message, but also when you edit or delete it. The app can then read the message and save it for your company. Encryption still works when the message is in transit from your Pixel to another Android phone, but the messages are readable from the phone itself.

That said, the feature is pretty transparent, and employers won’t be able to use it in a clandestine way. Google says employees will see a notification when archival is active on their phones. That means if your Pixel is controlled by your employer, they can keep full records of your RCS conversations. This can include work chats that happen in Google Messages.

IT teams can turn the feature on with a simple setting and choose whichever archival app they prefer. Google notes that vendors like Celltrust, Smarsh, and 3rd Eye already support the new feature, with more expected to hop on in 2026.