STC on Apple’s terrible decision that puts the security and privacy of a billion iMessage users at risk. Read more:
Worse, the same issue impacts WhatsApp as well. Unless you disable general iCloud backups, WhatsApp’s own encrypted backup solution is rendered equally pointless. “If you have iCloud Backups turned on for your entire iPhone,” WhatsApp warns, “an unencrypted version of your chat history is also backed up to iCloud.”
But Google has been on a mission to fix this. Taking the reins on the global rollout of RCS—Rich Communication Services, essentially SMS 2.0. This universal standard for next-gen SMS began its deployment under the control of carriers around the world, but Google became frustrated with the lack of pace and took over.
Apple considered addressing iMessage’s cross-platform issue back in 2013, exploring the option of an Android client. It seems this was dismissed so as not to undermine the stickiness of Apple’s ecosystem across families, enabling cheaper Android devices to access Apple’s stock messenger. Now Google Messages has closed the feature/security gap to iMessage, but Apple’s sticky walled garden issue remains.Just as Apple launched a raft of new, sticky iMessage features with iOS 15, the major U.S.
It’s 2021 and no-one should message over SMS v1 anymore. It’s not secure and prone to compromises and hacks—as we’ve seen repeatedly this year alone. But essentially, Apple is saying to its users that there’s no choice. Unless everyone you know uses an Apple phone, the company pushes you to unsecured SMS or a third-party app. And if the latter, you cannot make this the default. Not good.