A new report claims that Google is working on adding end-to-end encryption to the Android Messages app, which is the default texting app for many Android users.
According to 9to5Google, someone posted an internal ‘Dogfood’ build of the Android Messages app on APK Mirror. The publication is still going through the code, but the main highlight it found was the new encryption protocol.
All that’s been uncovered is code referencing the feature, and so far, the team has been unable to get it working. This is still nice to see since it suggests Google is working on it.
One key detail that was found is that it appears that the app is only encrypting RCS chats. If you lose a solid internet connection, the app may try to send your message as either an SMS or MMS message, which won’t be encrypted. 9to5Google says that the app will warn you if this happens. You can also choose not to send the message if you want to wait for better service.
This all seems part of Google’s plan to bring its default Android messaging service up to par with Apple’s Messages platform. The other day there way even a leak about single message reactions, another feature Apple implemented before Google.
The main question is when Google plans to roll out RCS Chat features for all users globally since the feature is needed to make the encryption work in the first place.
Source: 9to5Google
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