With iMessage, Apple allows iOS and macOS users to send end-to-end encrypted messages to each other. However, this is a different story when text messages are sent from Android to iOS and vice versa because this will just be sent as a regular text. This means that it isn’t quite as secure during the transmission.
However, Google wants to change this because in a tweet by Google’s SVP Of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, the executive hinted that Apple should adopt the Rich Communication Services protocol (RCS).
https://twitter.com/lockheimer/status/1446193676883922953
For those unfamiliar, the RCS protocol was designed as a replacement for traditional SMS. It was also supposed to be a platform agnostic alternative to other messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and iMessage. This is because right now, those services require you to either own an iPhone, or sign up for a Facebook/WhatsApp account.
This is versus SMS where as long as you have a mobile phone, a phone number, and a cellular connection, you can send and receive SMS right out of the box. Google has been pushing the RCS protocol for a while now and so far, the major carriers in the US have agreed to adopt it.
Apple is one of the few major tech companies that is still holding out, but we can’t say we’re surprised as iMessage could be an incentive for users to purchase Apple products and use its ecosystem.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Google, iOS, Privacy and Security.