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AFAICT Google Messages is simply encrypting the data sent over RCS, i.e. RCS is dumb pipes for the encrypted data, and the carries don't explicitly cooperate on
by willseth 3y ago
AFAICT Google Messages is simply encrypting the data sent over RCS, i.e. RCS is dumb pipes for the encrypted data, and the carries don't explicitly cooperate one way or another. The consequence would be that only users of Google Messages are able to send and receive encrypted messages to/from Google Messages, not other RCS compatible messaging apps. Pretty ironic given the context.
- criddell 3y agoIf a customer of carrier A wants to send a message to a customer of carrier B and the carriers aren't cooperating with key management, then I think the message is not encrypted because customer A needs to know B's public key and when B gets the message, they need A's public key to verify the sender.
- willseth 3y agoThat's my understanding as well. My original reply was in response to your suggestion that iMessage differentiate RCS encrypted vs RCS unencrypted using colors, and it appears that wouldn't even be possible because Google is applying proprietary encryption on top of RCS using their app. I find this absolutely hilarious and almost beautiful: Google has been harassing Apple to implement RCS because it's an open standard and because its users feel green bubbles on iMessage are exclusionary. Now Google has implemented a proprietary protocol on top of RCS that only works with its messaging app, and only messages sent between users of that app appear in a darker blue color with a special lock icon. So Apple will ship the RCS standard in iMessage, and communication between Android users and iMessage will be sent using RCS, but iMessage users will appear to Android users in the lesser light blue bubbles alongside the dark blue bubbles only given to Android users with Google's proprietary app! Huzzah!