Apple's Unexpected iPhone Update: green iMessage Bubbles Elimination Slated for This Week
Republished on December 9 with a new FBI encryption warning that could potentially mark the end of blue bubbles as well, a significant development for all iPhone users.
Apple is set to introduce iOS 18.2 this week, delivering the long-awaited deployment of advanced Apple Intelligence tools that were held back from iOS 18's fall launch. Alongside this anticipated update, there's an unexpected change in store—a shift in how iPhones operate and, at long last, the demise of those aggravating green bubbles.
The green bubble vs. blue bubble debate is essentially an American affair—the US has been the primary market to resist WhatsApp, with its entire social network largely adopting the platform, whether on iPhone or Android, creating a homogenous user base. This is a refreshingly democratic and socially equalizing trend.
Despite American uptake, WhatsApp is still struggling to overcome the green bubble barrier. Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated passing the 100 million US users milestone in the summer, and everyone in the US has likely noticed the billboards and Modern Family ads emphasizing the benefits of seamless, secure cross-platform messaging.
None of this has, however, managed to eliminate green bubbles. The real catalyst for change appears to be two government players—China's Ministry of State Security and America's FBI. The Chinese seemingly initiated this—not the MSS itself, but rather one of its arm's length hacking groups, which infiltrated US telco networks. In response, the FBI cautioned US citizens to avoid sending unsecured text messages.
Green bubbles signify a lack of end-to-end encryption. While blue bubbles are secure, green bubbles are not. This isn't exclusive to old-school SMS or newly popular RCS; it's uniform for both. When the FBI advises Americans to cease sending unsecured text messages, it's in reference to green bubbles.
Apple's anticipated update in iOS 18.2, now imminent, allows iPhone users to change their default apps for the first time. This includes shifting the phone dialer and messenger, the very apps the FBI and CISA have emphasized should incorporate encryption if at all possible. Given the headlines of the last 72-hours, standard network calls or messages between Androids and iPhones are never end-to-end encrypted.
Consequently, following the FBI's recommendation, iPhone users should change their default dialer and messenger to WhatsApp or Signal or other fully encrypted options. Apple offers FaceTime for calls and iMessage for texts, but both only secure exchanges between iPhones. In this respect, the timing of iOS 18.2 couldn't be better, but for Apple and Google's RCS push, it might not be ideal.
However, not everyone will follow suit. Many might, though, especially given the FBI warning dominating the news and the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Chinese hacks. If some users do switch, if enough users do switch, we may finally bid farewell to the green bubble controversy once and for all. The bubbles would still be green if texting Android to iPhone using iMessage—but if you adopt a fully encrypted platform as your default, this becomes insignificant.
As we enter 2024, I proposed that it would be the year messaging transformed fundamentally, yet I didn't anticipate it unfolding this way. Welcome to uncharted territory, where we watch with interest as users react to the network hacking revelations and the fallout that ensues.
What we truly need is for green bubbles to transform to blue, for RCS to securely emerge as another viable option for users. Despite the GSMA and Google's efforts, RCS is not yet a reality like iOS 18.2, which is now merely days away.
Although straightforward for Apple's US iPhone users, this could become more intricate for users in Europe. However, fortunately, it seems that complexity has diminished—this carries significant implications for secure messaging in the future.
As previously reported, the EU's Chat Control would obligate the operators of messaging and communication platforms to scan private chats to flag material suspected of being CSAM—child sexual abuse material. While this objective is challenging to contest, once end-to-end encryption is breached in this manner, anything can be screened—political, moral, ethical, sexual, etc.
Chat Control has faded from the spotlight, but it reemerged this week with concerns that there was a renewed push to find a consensus of EU governments that would substantiate pushing forwards.
Fortunately, as TechRadar now reports, "on December 6, the European Pirate Party announced that the European Council Committee halted the proposal (yet again) as more governments joined the list of countries opposing it." This is crucial since pushing fate in this direction might have served as a catalyst for the new American administration to follow suit. When the FBI advised users to switch from text messaging to secure platforms, they referred to "responsible" encryption, which essentially implies encryption with backdoors for law enforcement to monitor content when needed, rather than be left in the dark.
It's intriguing to note that EFF's warning on responsible encryption, issued back in 2017, has a twist in this week's headlines. "By definition, when a user sends encrypted messages using a secure system, the service provider has no business decrypting them." This is tough to refute, given the Salt Typhoon situation.
If Chat Control manages to succeed, we'd wave goodbye to the concept of the blue bubble. Even more worryingly, the FBI has hinted that blue bubbles might disappear, at least in their current form.
Apple reassures its 2 billion users that "Apple doesn't log encrypted messages or attachments, they're protected by end-to-end encryption. Only the sender and receiver have access to them. Apple can't decrypt this data."
This is crucial, and Apple's implementation of multi-device, end-to-end encryption is setting an industry standard. When a user enables iMessage, the device generates encryption keys for use with the service. The private keys are stored on the device, while the public keys are sent to Apple's servers, associated with the user's phone number or email address.
Apple's focus on iMessage is on content security and user privacy. If Apple had given in to public pressure and developed an Android iMessage client, it would've had a strong cross-platform messenger. But it hasn't, and there's no sign of it ever doing so. And when third-party apps try to do the same, they're usually shut down for security reasons.
End-to-end encryption is a binary - content is either secure or it's not. Apple emphasizes that it can't access content and has eliminated the vulnerability where it stored user keys in iCloud backups that it could access. Now, users have full control, ensuring no unauthorized access to iMessage content, except for a device compromise.
Cue the FBI and a significant update on what might be in store for iPhone users. The Bureau has clarified that its "responsibly managed encryption" in its "stop texting" warning means "law enforcement supports strong, responsibly managed encryption. This encryption should safeguard people's privacy and also be manageable so U.S. tech companies can provide readable content in response to a lawful court order."
This is a major shift for Apple, extending beyond iMessage to its advanced iCloud encryption. It now protects almost all iPhone content, even from Apple itself, and safeguards it in the event of a cloud breach.
The term "responsible encryption" has been advocated since 2017, when then Deputy U.S Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stated that while encryption is vital for data security, "warrant-proof" encryption is problematic. He argued that while privacy concerns are valid, "technology companies are creating a world where evidence of criminal wrongdoing is inaccessible."
Rosenstein's comments were made during the first Trump administration, and speculations are now rife about the second one. A storm is brewing, with U.S. encryption warnings, EU chat-control proposals, and a new lawsuit claiming Apple's end-to-end encryption is causing harm.
Apple, alongside Meta and Google, will fiercely defend the encryption status quo and prevent monitoring or backdoor access from being mandated. And rightly so. The stakes are incredibly high. Once the encryption bubble bursts, it won't pop back up. It's good to see green bubbles fade away, but it seems that blue bubbles are under threat now more than ever before.
- In response to the FBI's warning, iPhone users might consider switching to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal instead of relying on iMessage, which only secures exchanges between iPhones.
- Apple's upcoming iOS 18.2 update allows users to change their default apps for the first time, including shifting the phone dialer and messenger to fully encrypted platforms.
- The Chinese Ministry of State Security's hacking group infiltrated US telco networks, potentially forcing the FBI to caution Americans against sending unsecured text messages, which are signified by green bubbles in messaging apps.
- The FBI's definition of "responsibly managed encryption" suggests that law enforcement supports strong encryption but also requires the ability to provide readable content in response to a lawful court order, which could potentially impact the security features of iPhones and other tech devices.
