I appriciate your detailed reply. I am still a bit confused though.
If Google is “the man in the middle”, and Apple decides not to create thier own RCS or UP protocol, this seems to imply iphone users are now sending thier information to Google servers (Google will now have your information), in addition to Apple and the phone carrier. Is this correct?
Very possible I am misunderstanding everything, due more to my ignorance than your explanation. Thank you for your patience.
If Apple doesn’t implement Signal and if they don’t contribute to the RCS protocol (they can do it, the same way as they do for the Qi charging thing, they did contributed to the same type C standard they were avoiding all this time, they do contribute to av1 codec etc etc)
And at least one of the 2 service providers does not have RCS implemented yet
then the info will go through google eventually, and if it is not e2e, then Google will see it.
Just a reminder, they do currently send SMS to android, and sms is fully unencrypted and fully visible to virtually anyone (including to google and everyone in the country on the receiving end).
I doubt Apple will ignore e2e just to flip Google with “green bubbles are insecure, use iMessage”. And people (if they are not Pavel Durov of Telegram) have a lot of faith in Signal protocol, so they don’t have to revolutionize anything - there is a good enough thing to implement.
And if Google and Apple both use Signal on top of the standard, it will become standard.
I appriciate your detailed reply. I am still a bit confused though.
If Google is “the man in the middle”, and Apple decides not to create thier own RCS or UP protocol, this seems to imply iphone users are now sending thier information to Google servers (Google will now have your information), in addition to Apple and the phone carrier. Is this correct?
Very possible I am misunderstanding everything, due more to my ignorance than your explanation. Thank you for your patience.
So…
then the info will go through google eventually, and if it is not e2e, then Google will see it.
Just a reminder, they do currently send SMS to android, and sms is fully unencrypted and fully visible to virtually anyone (including to google and everyone in the country on the receiving end).
I doubt Apple will ignore e2e just to flip Google with “green bubbles are insecure, use iMessage”. And people (if they are not Pavel Durov of Telegram) have a lot of faith in Signal protocol, so they don’t have to revolutionize anything - there is a good enough thing to implement.
And if Google and Apple both use Signal on top of the standard, it will become standard.
Thank you!!! Your breakdown was extremely helpful. You are very kind in taking the time to help me wrap my head around this. Much appreciated.