Incorporating RCS messaging for Android on iPhone can compromise my security?

You might feel worried without cause. iMessage is Apple's main messaging platform. Not everyone you message uses iMessage, so your SMS texts aren't secure at the moment. Bringing in RCS messaging will add security when messaging between your iPhone and any Android using RCS.

I don't think you actually understand what RCS is.

On your iPhones message app, you can send either iMessages (blue bubbles), or SMS text messages (green bubbles)

SMS text messages (SMS = Standard Messaging Service) are actually very unsecure.

For example, since SMS messages are actually not encrypted at all, anyone with a mini cell tower can pick up text messages being sent and received in that area, and read them without issue since there's not any encryption (this is just an example of how it's not secure, not saying this is actually happening to the average person)

RCS text messages (RCS = Rich Communication Service) is simply an upgrade to SMS which does include proper encryption (Since Google has stepped up and streamlined RCS and made the new standard)

It will be very similar to iMessage (iMessage will still be better), and will allow you to send high quality pictures, video, see typing indicators, read receipts, and most importantly encrypted messages. Apple has since confirmed all of these features as well!

Apple also stated that it will be working with GSMA, and Google to improve the encryption on RCS as a whole.

TLDR: You have absolutely nothing to worry about, this is literally just going to add more security to your phone AND improve your texting experience with anyone who doesn't own an iPhone :)

Saegzz wrote:

So why was there so much reluctance to incorporate RCS messaging?

No one here in this user-to-user forum can answer "why" Apple does or does not do something.

What I have read in the announcements is that Apple will be adding the RCS standard features, not the Google variation. Google appeared to want Apple to adopt their standard and presumably get rid of iMessage. Google was threatening to try to get the EU to bring regulatory action. By adopting the standard RCS, Apple avoids being slapped by the EU for having a closed system but still doesn't give Google what they really wanted. Apparently, some people (read people under the age of 25) fell left out or ostracized for not having blue bubbles so they are not buying Android phones. This hurts Google's bottom line. The idea that the color of the message bubble would matter has to be one of the silliest things I've heard in years

It will be safer than SMS as SMS messages can be easily compromised.

vasile50 wrote:

Hello I would like to tell everyone here as an IT specialist SMS messaging is not insecure. It goes from phone to phone through the tower. It is not stored in the cell phone tower. The only way people can steal an SMS is by getting into your phone. RCS iMessage messaging is not more secure, in fact, all of your messages are stored online in the cloud where the government can read saying or hackers the only difference is SMS doesn’t provide high-quality photos because of the low kilobytes. It can transfer your photos and videos, which is why people have switched to WhatsApp, RCS messaging and iMessage messaging.

Being an" IT specialist" doesn't mean you are an SMS expert or a security expert. SMS is vulnerable to a number of different types of attacks, including SIM swapping and SIM cloning scams, and man-in-the-middle attacks. It is not secure because it is not encrypted, and there is no way to verify the sender. It's especially problematic if used for MFA. And, yes, SMS messages are stored on servers. Cell towers are, by the way, not servers. They are structures that cellular antennas are attached to.

Yes, this would be a great thing for Apple to do. SMS is unsecure any messages that you sent over SMS can be read. Apple implementing RCS would secure the communication between iphone and Android devices and also it would also enhance the user experience how many times have you tires to send a pic to a non iphone user the quality drops and bad end user experience this would also fix this. Personally I can't wait to have the option. I use both iphone and android it's time that Apple started supporting this. Kudos to Apple. Thank you!.

It's a perfectly accurate statement. I think you either didn't read the entire post to which you're replying (or the other posts and links in the article), or you didn't understand it. The RCS standard does not include encryption.

It is a decieving statement because when people talk about RCS, they are de-facto talking about Android. 99.99% of the people who use RCS will be using Google's open-source (*not* proprietary) implementation, which includes E2E encryption in most jurisdictions (see next).

You could also look at it this way. Google is trying to wrest control of market share from Apple by trying to force Apple into using a Google-controlled messaging standard.

Actually, no.

There is a very good reason RCS does not have E2E by default, and it is political. RCS is not a Google standard, it is a GSMA standard - Google donated RCS to GSMA to take it through the standards track. GSMA is *global*, and every telephone company on planet earth is a member. Many telephone companies are simply not allowed to offer E2E encryption to their customers because it is illegal in their country. Having any notion of E2E built-into RCS, would then make it unpalatable as an international standard. That is why it isn't there - it isn't because of some grand conspiracy.

Google, meanwhile, kept E2E encryption in their open-source implementation of RCS, allowing handset manufacturers and distributors to turn it on or not based on national laws.

Apple saying "we are not going to implement E2E because it is not in RCS", is therefore a cop-out in order to have a marketing justification for why iMessage is better on iOS, and Apple knows as such.

There are lots of articles about what Apple announced. I'm sure some of them explain it better than I can.

I don't think any of this was to placate Android users. It appears to have been a way to avoid another set to with the EU.

Because I think many of the additional features that RCS can provide (messaging over Internet instead of mobile network, read receipts, better image/video quality, etc) are staples of what iMessage touts as it's advantage over traditional SMS.

RCS still won't provide the same E2E encryption that iMessage provides (or any since that's still held tightly by both Apple and Google for their proprietary clients). But RCS will make the experience of texting people who don't use the same ecosystem you do WAY better for us consumers.

If Apple were to adopt RCS without halfway being forced to, they give up what much of the public believes is what makes iMessage special. iMessage will still be a better standard, but the gap will close by a whole lot for most people's experiences.

Tldr; the comparison of iMessage to SMS is far worse than that of iMessage to RCS.

Something I feel most people skip over is iMessage and the messages app aren’t the same thing. iMessage is a service within the texting app on iPhone.

iOS text messaging app provides SMS/MMS texts between phones as well as iMessages between iOS devices.

Think about Facebook messenger. Until recently you could set it as your default texting app so it could send your SMS/MMS texts to other phone numbers, as well as message other Facebook users. Same as how iMessage could send SMS texts as well as message other iMessage users. Facebook removed that so it’s not comparable anymore but same concept. You do both within the same app.

Think of it this way, iMessage isn’t getting RCS support, the iOS texting app will be getting RCS.

vasile50 wrote:

Hello I would like to tell everyone here as an IT specialist SMS messaging is not insecure. It goes from phone to phone through the tower. It is not stored in the cell phone tower. The only way people can steal an SMS is by getting into your phone. RCS iMessage messaging is not more secure, in fact, all of your messages are stored online in the cloud where the government can read saying or hackers the only difference is SMS doesn’t provide high-quality photos because of the low kilobytes. It can transfer your photos and videos, which is why people have switched to WhatsApp, RCS messaging and iMessage messaging.

When you send an SMS it does not go device to device; if it worked that way you could never get an SMS unless your phone was turned on and connected to the network at the time the sender tapped “send”. Your SMS travels over the voice channel SS7 signaling network to a server for your carrier unencrypted. If the recipient has a different carrier the message is then forwarded unencrypted to the recipient carrier’s server, where it is stored until the recipient’s phone connects to the network.

SS7 can be eavesdropped with an inexpensive monitoring device, because it was never intended to be used to carry outside messages; it’s purpose is to permit signaling between carriers to set up phone calls, and thus it was assumed it would “always” be internal to carrier’s networks. But some brilliant engineer said, “SS7 has all this unused bandwidth; we can monetize it by selling that bandwidth to end users.” As you may recall, when SMS first became available there was a charge for every message.

Because there was no single way to implement it.

Each carrier wanted to do it their way.

Google stepped in and implemented their version of RCS in Android and became the defacto standard.

Apple was in no hurry to implement it, they had plenty of time for the carrier situation to work itself out.

RCS does have E2E encryption from Android to Android. So this is a decieving statement.

Apple could implement it when they implement RCS. If they choose to leave their uses less secure in order to protect a market that is their perrogirive.

I was to placate android users who has to send and receive crappy pictures and videos via SMS but the EU played a big part in this. Since the EU's the decision on proprietary chargers are outlawed. The replaceable batteries are going to make a come back with this deal with the EU and easier right to repairability. Rest assured it was the Android market and people that started the uproar and the EU forcefully pushed apples hand in the movement to the right direction.