Google plans to adopt the Message Layer Security protocol for its Messages app; MLS allows interoperable E2E encrypted messaging across services and platforms
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Messages had been extending encryption from one-to-one RCS conversations to groups: Google announced end-to-end encryption for one-to-one RCS chats in 2021, then planned group-chat encryption in open beta in 2022. MLS moves the discussion from encrypting Messages’ own RCS traffic toward a protocol designed for secure cross-service communication.
That matters because interoperability can make encryption an ecosystem capability rather than a feature confined to a single messaging client. The plan also aligns with Google’s adjacent effort to connect its workplace messaging product with Slack and Teams through Mio-powered interoperability.
First-order effects
- Google is signaling that future Messages encryption work may be built around MLS, rather than solely around service-specific RCS implementations.
- Users and partner services would only gain cross-platform encrypted messaging if Google completes the adoption and other services implement compatible MLS support.
Second-order effects
- Messaging providers seeking encrypted interoperability would face a clearer technical path—and potential pressure—to support the same protocol rather than maintain isolated encryption systems.
- Google’s Messages team must reconcile its existing RCS encryption rollout with MLS-based interoperability, making protocol compatibility a product and engineering priority.
Third-order effects
- If major services converge on MLS, the competitive boundary in messaging could shift from exclusive networks toward control of the client experience, identity, and service integrations layered above a shared encrypted protocol.
- The outcome remains contingent on multi-provider adoption: a common protocol can enable interoperability, but it does not by itself require competing services to open their networks.
The trend: This is one data point in messaging’s move from app-specific encryption toward interoperable security standards that can support communication across service boundaries.