Most fashionable shopper messaging platforms (together with Google Messages) assist end-to-end encryption, however customers immediately are restricted to speaking with contacts who use the identical platform. This is the reason Google is strongly supportive of regulatory efforts that require interoperability for giant end-to-end messaging platforms.
For interoperability to achieve apply, nevertheless, laws have to be mixed with open, industry-vetted, requirements, notably within the space of privateness, safety, and end-to-end encryption. With out sturdy standardization, the consequence can be a spaghetti of advert hoc middleware that would decrease safety requirements to cater for the bottom frequent denominator and lift implementation prices, notably for smaller suppliers. Lack of standardization would additionally make superior options akin to end-to-end encrypted group messaging unattainable in apply – group messages must be encrypted and delivered a number of occasions to cater for each completely different protocol.
With the latest publication of the IETF’s Message Layer Safety (MLS) specification RFC 9420, messaging customers can sit up for this actuality. For the primary time, MLS permits sensible interoperability throughout companies and platforms, scaling to teams of hundreds of multi-device customers. It is usually versatile sufficient to permit suppliers to deal with rising threats to consumer privateness and safety, akin to quantum computing.
By guaranteeing a uniformly excessive safety and privateness bar that customers can belief, MLS will unleash an enormous discipline of latest alternatives for the customers and builders of interoperable messaging companies that undertake it. This is the reason we intend to construct MLS into Google Messages and assist its vast deployment throughout the {industry} by open sourcing our implementation within the Android codebase.