Apple’s Surprising iPhone Update—Green Bubbles End Next Week Renato Bond | usagoldmines.com

Republished on December 7 with the newest stories on Europe’s proposal to clampdown on safe messaging, which may see customers denied entry to platforms.

Apple appears all set to launch iOS 18.2 subsequent week, bringing the long-awaited launch of feature-rich Apple Intelligence instruments held again from iOS 18’s launch within the fall. However the subsequent iPhone firmware launch additionally brings essentially the most stunning replace in years—a change to how your iPhone works and—lastly—an finish to these pesky inexperienced bubbles.

The saga of green bubbles versus blue bubbles is very much an American thing—the US has been the one vital market which has held WhatsApp at bay, and clearly when your whole social community strikes to WhatsApp—whether or not on iPhone or Android, all customers look the identical. It’s refreshingly democratic and socially leveling.

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That mentioned, Individuals are making an attempt it. Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated WhatApp hitting the 100 million US users milestone in the summer, and people of you within the US may have observed the billboards and Trendy Household adverts stating the advantages of seamless, safe cross-platform messaging.

None of which truly killed the inexperienced bubbles. Evidently this may come down to 2 authorities gamers—China’s Ministry of State Safety and America’s FBI. The Chinese language began it—not truly MSS themselves, but one of its arm’s length hacking groups which managed to infiltrate US telco networks. The FBI then understandably warned that US citizens should stop sending unsecured text messages.

That’s what these inexperienced bubbles are in fact. They weren’t truly designed to differentiate social standing amongst teen and gen-z customers. What they truly spotlight it an absence of end-to-end encryption. To place it merely, blue is safe and inexperienced is just not. It doesn’t matter if it’s old style SMS inexperienced or new child on the block RCS inexperienced. Blue is still secure and green is still not. And so, when the FBI warns Individuals to cease sending unsecured textual content messages, they imply inexperienced bubbles.

Cue Apple and that stunning replace. iOS 18.2—now expected next week—will permit iPhone customers to vary default apps for the primary time. Importantly, this includes your phone dialer and messenger, the very two apps the FBI and CISA have identified must be encrypted if in any respect attainable. As you’ll all know by now, given the headlines over the past 72-hours, commonplace community calls or messages between Androids and iPhones are by no means end-to-end encrypted.

And so, following the logic, iPhone customers ought to change their default dialer and messenger to WhatsApp or Sign or different absolutely secured choices. Apple presents FaceTime for calls and iMessage for texts, however each solely safe iPhone-to-iPhone, in order that doesn’t work. In a single respect, the timing of iOS 18.2 couldn’t be higher, however in one other—maybe for Apple and for Google’s RCS push, it couldn’t be worse.

Not everybody will do that, in fact. However many will. Particularly given the FBI warning making headlines throughout the US within the wake of Salt Storm’s ongoing Chinese language hacks, and with no agency finish in sight. If some customers do change, if sufficient customers do change, then maybe we are able to finish the inexperienced bubble nonsense as soon as and for all. The bubbles would nonetheless be inexperienced if texting Android to iPhone from iMessage—however should you’re utilizing a completely encrypted platform as your default as an alternative, this turns into irrelevant.

As we entered 2024, I recommended that it might be the yr messaging modified perpetually, however I didn’t anticipate it to run fairly like this. We actually are in uncharted territory, and can watch with curiosity to see what occurs via December as customers reply to the community hacking information and the fallout that may inevitably observe.

What we actually want is the inexperienced bubbles to show blue, for RCS to be absolutely secured as an alternative choice for customers. But despite the GSMA and Google working on this, it’s not but in sight, not like iOS 18.2 which is now simply days away.

Whereas that is easy for Apple’s US iPhone customers, there was a threat it was about grow to be extra complicated for customers in Europe. Luckily that threat appears to have simply diminished—this has enormous implications for the way forward for safe messaging.

As I’ve reported earlier than, the EU’s so-called Chat Management would mandate the operators of messaging and different communication platforms to display/scan personal chats to flag materials suspected of being CSAM—baby sexual abuse materials. Whereas this singles goal is tough to argue, as soon as end-to-end encryption is breached on this manner, any materials might be screened—political, ethical, moral, sexual, and so forth.

Chat Management dropped out of the information agenda some months in the past, however then returned this week with fears that there was a renewed push to discover a working majority of EU governments that may help pushing this forwards to coverage.

Fortunately, as TechRadar now stories, “on December 6, the European Pirate Celebration reported that the European Council Committee stopped the proposal (but once more) as extra governments joined the listing of nations in opposition to it.”

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That is vital, as a result of had the EU pushed this forwards, it might have supplied the brand new US administration with some impetus to do the identical. When the FBI warned customers to modify from textual content messaging to safe platforms, they referred to accountable encryption. This primarily means encryption with black doorways for regulation enforcement to make use of to observe content material when warranted, quite than discover themselves “at the hours of darkness.”

Apparently, EFF’s warning on accountable encryption, issued when it was first touted in 2017, has an attention-grabbing twist on this week’s information. “By definition, when the client sends end-to-end encrypted messages—in any form of fairly safe implementation—the provider doesn’t (and mustn’t) possess the knowledge essential to decrypt them.” Exhausting to argue in opposition to that given Salt Storm.

Ought to Chat Management ever succeed, there can be no such factor as a blue bubble.