Google Messages End-to-End Encryption for Group Chats Rolled Out to Open Beta Testers, Company Says

Google first announced it would bring end-to-end encryption to group chats at Google I/O in May 2022.

Written by Himani Jha, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 9 January 2023 14:20 IST

Google Messages End-to-End Encryption for Group Chats Rolled Out to Open Beta Testers, Company Says

Photo Credit: Google

Google Messages already have end-to-end encryption for individual RCS chats

Highlights

Google Messages rolls out E2EE for group chats to beta testers in a month
Group chats will now display “This chat is now end-to-end encrypted”
E2EE Google messages group chats will not be accessible to third parties

Google Messages now supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for group chats on the beta version of its messaging app. The company announced the rollout of the new security features for the group chats back in December and has confirmed that the rollout is now complete for users who signed up to join the open beta program and test upcoming versions of the messaging app before they are rolled out to other users. Google first announced it would bring E2EE support for group chats at its I/O 2022 event.

Support for Google Message group chats with E2EE is now available to all users via the open beta program, the firm announced via its official Twitter handle. The rollout of encrypted group chats has been completed in a month. The tech giant had revealed it would roll out the feature to open beta testers last month via a blog post. Users who have enrolled themselves in the open beta program can now access the feature.

Oh! Also... we completed our rollout of group chat end-to-end encryption for users in Open Beta. 🤓
— Android (@Android) January 6, 2023

The search giant announced it would make group chats on the Messages app more secure by introducing end-to-end encryption support at its I/O event in May 2022. Google says that E2EE messages are private and safe as they can only be seen by the sender and the recipient. No third parties, including Google, can access the content of these messages.

The Google Messages beta users with the E2EE enabled will be able a “This chat is now end-to-end encrypted” banner in their group chats. Additionally, it will also have a lock icon on the send button. Individual chats on Google Messages Messages were already protected by end-to-end encryption.

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Meanwhile, Google has also announced that it will bring more emoji reactions to RCS chats on its Messages app. It said that users will soon be able to react to messages with any emoji. Not only that, but Android users will also be able to share the emoji reactions with iPhone users. As of now, Google Messages users can only react by using emoji for thumbs up, heart eyes, laughing, shock, crying, and anger on the app.

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Google rolled out the new emoji reactions on Google Messages to some beta users in November. The feature is expected to be rolled out to all users in the future. Once rolled out, users will be able to see a plus icon in the emoji options. Upon clicking that a full emoji picker will be shown, enabling users to choose any suitable emoji to react.

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