Timing really is everything. Apple has just confirmed one of iPhone’s longest awaited security upgrades, plugging a major weakness and expected to come with iOS 19 this fall. This should be good news for millions of users. But don’t get too excited. In reality the timing could not be worse, and that’s very bad news for users.
Apple has confirmed that it’s finally extending iMessage encryption to include chats between iPhones and Android users — kind of. What’s actually happening is the mobile standards setter (GSMA) is updating its RCS protocol and both Apple and Google have confirmed they’ll adopt this. It brings a raft of improvements to messaging, but the headline is cross-platform end-to-end encryption coming to RCS.
When the FBI and America’s cyber defense agency warned iPhone and Android users to stop texting after Chinese hackers were caught marauding through U.S. networks, their advice was simple — only use fully encrypted messaging. The hackers were pulling metadata and even some content. Encryption is your friend. we were all told.
