Google Messages just flicked the switch on end-to-end encryption for all RCS and group chats

Google just announced that all RCS conversations in Messages are now fully end-to-end encrypted, even in group chats. RCS stands for Rich Communication Services and is replacing traditional text and picture messaging, providing you with more dynamic and secure features.

With RCS enabled, you can share high-res photos and videos, see typing indicators for your chat buddy, and get read receipts to see when a message has been read or received, among other features. Everyone in the chat will need to turn on RCS to take advantage of these features, and Google says it will be toggled on by default for now on.

End-to-end encryption in Google Messages will likely help build confidence in many more than the already 800 million users, and onboard new people who have likely never used it before. I’m personally just happy to see this shift because it means all of those crappy pre-installed bloatware apps from carriers for texting may need to disappear into the wind.

If you have E2E enabled on your chat, your messages should display a little lock icon. Let me know in the comments if you’re using this already or if you’re still waiting for it to roll out to you!