Google is upping the safety for a minimum of a number of the conversations on its Messages app by adding end-to-end encryption.
It will be launching end-to-end encryption on Messages, starting with peer to peer conversations between people through the Communication Services based version of the app.
“End-to-end encryption ensures that nobody, including Google itself and all the third party applications, can read and intercept the content of your data as it travels between your device and to the device of the person you’re contacting. It travels a lot of distance in between the whole conversation,” the company explained.
The end-to-end encryption will be starting beta testers this month and will further continue in next year, the corporation said, and all the eligible conversations will automatically be upgrade to the new level of the security, although this encryption will only work or stay available only when both people doing the conversation have Messages installed and chat features on.
Google has been gradually rolling out RCS, the successor to SMS, which aims to bring back texting equivalent kinds of features you’d find in chat apps like Apple’s iMessage and WhatsApp.
The company has been working with device makers and mobile operators to encourage them to offer the richer features available as a result of the shift to RCS, like sending and receiving receipt, improving the quality of photos and videos, chatting over Wi-Fi or cellular data, and also you can know about when your message has been read. The advertising giant said it’s now completed the worldwide rollout of chat features which anyone using Messages should now have access to those additional features, either from their phone company or from Google.
