Google Messages simply received a function your boss will love (and you will not)

Through the years, Google has persistently improved Google Messages, together with updates to group chats, spam protection, and different RCS options, making it extra aggressive with widespread messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage. Nevertheless, its newest replace would possibly increase some eyebrows, particularly in case you have a Pixel gadget for work.

In a current blog post, Google introduced that it is rolling out a brand new “RCS message archival” functionality on company-owned Pixel gadgets for Google Messages, which might observe RCS messages which might be despatched, obtained, edited, or deleted on a Pixel telephone that’s “absolutely managed” by an organization (by way of Android Central).

Primarily, this implies somebody like your boss or an IT admin might see any messages you ship in your company-owned Pixel. So in case you weren’t already cautious about each message you ship at work, this would possibly make you much more.

Once more, it is value stressing that is only for company-owned Pixel gadgets, so in case you have a Pixel smartphone that you just purchased your self for private use, which is the overwhelming majority of individuals, this would possibly not have an effect on you in anyway, and no one will probably be randomly snooping in your messages.

Google is doing this for regulatory functions

Many companies have to archive messages to adjust to authorities laws

For those who’re questioning why Google is taking this step, it isn’t about serving to employers spy on staff — it is about serving to corporations adjust to authorities laws. These guidelines require some corporations to archive enterprise messages for potential future wants, similar to lawsuits.

Google Messages makes use of RCS (Wealthy Communication Providers), an end-to-end encrypted messaging protocol, which makes it troublesome for companies to satisfy these compliance necessities. Beforehand, corporations relied on carrier-level logging for archiving SMS messages, however with RCS now normal, encryption prevents service logs from capturing the mandatory info. To handle this, Google has launched RCS message archiving, permitting companies to protect the messaging data they want.

“When configured by your IT group on a totally managed gadget, the archival software is notified upon the receipt of every RCS message, not solely when a message is distributed or obtained, but additionally if a message is edited or deleted too,” Google defined in a blog post. “The archival app then reads the message information and makes it accessible to your IT group.”

Google stresses that the whole message archival course of occurs on the “gadget itself” and that it isn’t shared with Google or saved wherever on the web. Which means that the messages can stay end-to-end encrypted, whereas nonetheless “assembly stringent regulatory necessities.”

For workers who use a company-owned Pixel gadget for work, RCS message archival is not enabled by default; it should be manually enabled by an IT administrator. If it does get turned on, you may see a notification once you open Google Messages that message archival is working.

General, in case you solely have a private Pixel gadget, there’s nothing to fret about right here. Nevertheless, if it is a work gadget, you have to be cautious with each message you ship — although you are most likely already doing that. Let’s be actual: if you wish to roast your boss or your work, it is at all times higher to do it in your private telephone anyway, not a piece gadget, no matter this being added.