Google has pushed out many innovative features over the years that Apple followed later. However, there’s one thing that the Android platform has failed to offer, and that’s the equivalent of Apple’s iMessage.

Now, Android is rolling its Rich Communication Service (RCS), much like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger in several countries.

Apple’s iMessage was a trailblazer in messaging, taking the boring old SMS a few notches higher with GIFs, images, stickers, etc. WhatsApp and Messenger also offer these additions to the regular text messages.

However, it’s the security that takes precedence for many users, as these RCS platforms are more secure than the traditional SMS most GSM phones offer.

Finally, Google has caught up and is introducing its RCS in the Android Messages app. It’s already rolled out in several countries in different geographical regions such as Argentina, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, and Singapore.

Security Flaw

While this is a great leap for Android to finally level its messaging app with that of Apple’s, there is still some work left.

It offers all the standard GIFs, stickers, and animations that iMessage and the likes offer, but it’s failing to live up to the high security the major messaging platforms have developed over the years.

When you send a message on this new RCS version of the Android Messages app, it’s encrypted by very basic network encryption. The message is encrypted as it travels from your phone to the network tower. But that’s about it, and you don’t know if it’s encrypted all the way through the path of the message.

This type of internet-reliant message may be sent across several networks and several countries, which makes security complex. This means that the message is not totally secure throughout its path.

WhatsApp solved this problem a few years ago with end-to-end encryption. This allowed the messages to be fully encrypted throughout their journey. Only the sender and receiver have the decryption code.

This feature may seem unimportant to the average Android user, but on a bigger scale, it’s a bigger flaw. With cyber-attacks becoming all the more prevalent and powerful these days, security is the number one priority when it comes to any form of communication.

Another problem is that Google is working with network providers for this new RCS roll-out. It’s not an overhaul of Android’s native messaging app like that of iMessage. This reliance on cellular providers is what makes the new system’s security a little questionable.

Less Flexible

iMessage offers the flexibility of switching between iMessage and SMS swiftly. You can set it in the settings to send a message via SMS when Wifi or cellular data isn’t connected or working. Similarly, you can also manually send a message as an SMS, directly in the chat.

The new Android RCS seems to be missing this flexibility too. It’s one or the other, not a seamless combination of the two. That’s fine if you’re always connected to the internet, but it’s not the same for everyone.

More Work Needed

Since they’ve just rolled this feature out, it’s safe to assume they’ll address these issues sooner or later. Despite the flaws, this is groundbreaking for Android. This will also enable messaging on Android emulators that run on PCs without needing a cellular network as you do for SMS.

Android emulators are becoming popular in the gaming community, so this new feature will change the dependency of gamers on emulators for communication.

Apparently, Google is working on end-to-end encryption already, so you won’t have to wait too long for a more comprehensive Android’s answer to both iMessage and WhatsApp.