FBI WARNS USERS TO STOP SENDING TEXTS!
Before I go on a rant about how useless the media is in regards to spreading information about "FBI Warnings"...
I will comment that "yes" there are concerns about unencrypted text messages between iPhone & Android, but the comments or messages that are being spread around really aren't going to help the "non-tech" person.
Here's the situation in a very simple sentence....
"The original Apple iPhone sent it's first text message in 2007 and even until this day in early 2025, iPhone and Android users have "never" sent an encrypted text message "to each other directly" (By means of their respective default texting apps).
In other words, with or without RCS implementation on iPhones, the same exact problem has existed for over 15+ years!
What irritates me about these news articles or broadcasts.... they aren't helping the situation by focusing on the words... "unencrypted texts" and "RCS".
I will be very forthcoming that I have never been an "Apple" person, in fact, my first smart phone was an iPhone 3GS and when my contract with AT&T was over, I left the iPhone and went back to my Sony Ericson Flip phone... Yeah...
With that said, I am more prone to lean towards an Android based phone but I do not deny that each platform has it's own perks and cons.
So here's why the media is "Fearmongering" their viewers....
Rather than explaining that RCS has brought a lot of great features to texting between iPhone/Android users "BUT" it has not fixed the 15+ year long issue of no encryption....
The media wants to make it "sound like" RCS has made texting between the two platforms horribly unsafe....
Ummmm again... it's been unsafe since day one back in 2007!
How is this helping the non-tech person or the general population who has no desire to fact check things and just wants to freak out or make assumptions?!
The media could have simply said... hey just so you guys know RCS is great but Apple is still working with GSM to workout a standard of encryption between iPhone and Android users. Until this standard is made.... we recommend using another app for encrypted texting.
*I had to delete what I originally said at this point of the blog because I was ranting a bit too much lol*
So here's the deal.. I've been the "tech guy" of my circle of friends and family for many years (granted my blogs don't really show those "skills" right now LOL) but when I hear/read these types of articles, I start thinking about how people are going to be concerned about texting me because I have an Android phone and they have an iPhone....
As long as you aren't texting sensitive information between the two types of phones, it's not an issue.
What blows my mind is how the news will make this such a big deal (even though it's not new) but how many of us are still getting unencrypted security codes texted to our phones to log into our accounts?!
Seriously... why isn't the FBI or the media talking about two-factor authentication and making sure we don't use 2FA through SMS?!?!
It doesn't matter if you use an encrypted texting app, your one time use code texted to you through SMS is still going to be unencrypted!
Yeah....
**As a side note, it would be safer to use an authentication app or key rather than 2FA through SMS, not that it's going to make sense to anyone who reads this and doesn't know what any of this is... but at least I said it....**
If I allow myself just a "little room" to rant...
Outside of "Fearmongering" I also feel like this is an attempt at getting the two users (Apple/Android) bickering about each other.... specifically Apple users that cry about having RCS put on their "precious" phones....
Yeah... I said that... It's not that big of a deal!
I like my Google Phone but it's not "My Precious" lol
Anyway... I'll stop for now.
At some point I'll get more posts about technology and it will look attractive but I gotta figure out the whole look of my blogging page in the first place!
Take Care!
-Amit