Google Messages is taking a big step towards interoperable messaging with MLS standard

There’s no way around it: messaging has become an integral part of daily life for most of us. From personal conversations to business communications, we need messaging platforms to connect with others on a daily basis. And while many services offer end-to-end encryption, they often limit that security to conversations happening only inside their own platform. Google is taking the stance that true progress lies in enabling interoperability across different messaging services, however, and to help achieve this, they are advocating for regulations that promote open standards in the areas of privacy, security, and end-to-end encryption.

Interoperability is tough

Interoperability – the ability of different messaging platforms to seamlessly communicate with each other – has proven to be a difficult problem to solve in the world of digital messaging. Without it, users are confined to communicating only with contacts who use the same messaging service. Think of WhatsApp or iMessage and you know what messaging without interoperability looks like.

To escape this sort of fragmented and disconnected messaging situation we are currently in (especially here in the US), regulations that promote interoperability are essential. However, for those types of regulations to succeed in practice, they also need to be coupled with open industry-approved standards.

Standards can be a great thing

Standardization plays a critical role in ensuring true interoperability. It eliminates the need for half-measure middle-man solutions and prevents compromises in security and privacy. Without reliable standards, we end up with a bit of a mess that lowers security standards to accommodate the lowest common denominator. It all leads to increased costs and hinders the implementation of advanced features like end-to-end encrypted group messaging, requiring messages to be encrypted and delivered multiple times to appease all the different protocols.

Message Layer Security (MLS)

A significant development has taken place with the recent publication of the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) Message Layer Security (MLS) specification RFC 9420, however, that gives us a needed win in achieving true interoperability across services and platforms. It has the capacity to scale to accommodate groups of thousands of multi-device users, offering flexibility to address emerging threats to user privacy and security, such as quantum computing.

By embracing MLS, messaging platforms can establish a consistently high bar for security and privacy, and Google is on board with this new specification, recognizing the potential with an intent to integrate it into Google Messages. Additionally, they are committed to supporting its widespread adoption by open sourcing their implementation in the Android codebase. Google’s advocacy for regulatory efforts supporting interoperability is an important step towards a more connected messaging future for everyone, and if efforts like these move forward as hoped, maybe we eventually see the end of green bubbles once and for all.