Disaster Google Starts Sharing All Your Text Messages With Your Employer - Google is rolling out Android RCS Archival on Pixel (and other Android) phones, allowing employers to intercept and archive RCS chats on work-managed devices. In simpler terms, your employer will now be able to read your RCS chats in Google Messages.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/11/30/google-starts-sharing-all-your-text-messages-with-your-employer/

https://archive.ph/tcxv2

By Zak Doffman,
Contributor.
Zak Doffman writes about security, surveillance and privacy.
Nov 30, 2025 at 01:45am EST Updated Dec 01, 2025 at 01:01am EST

Microsoft triggered a viral furor when it revealed a Teams update to tell your company when you’re not at work. Now Google has done the same. Forget end-to-end encryption. A new Android update means your RCS and SMS texts are no longer private.

As reported by Android Authority, “Google is rolling out Android RCS Archival on Pixel (and other Android) phones, allowing employers to intercept and archive RCS chats on work-managed devices. In simpler terms, your employer will now be able to read your RCS chats in Google Messages despite end-to-end encryption.”

This applies to work-managed devices and doesn’t affect personal devices. And in certain regulated industries it just adds RCS archiving to existing SMS archiving. But employees in regular organizations view texting as different to emailing, especially given the expectations around end-to-end encryption. That’s no longer the case.

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This underlines the widespread misunderstanding of end-to-end encryption. The security protects your messages when they’re being sent, but once they’re on your phone, they’re decrypted and available to anyone controlling the device.

Google says this is “a dependable, Android-supported solution for message archival, which is also backwards compatible with SMS and MMS messages as well. Employees will see a clear notification on their device whenever the archival feature is active.”

Suddenly, the perk of being given a phone at work is not as good as it might seem. While employees have long been aware of the risks in over-sharing on email — a woefully insecure technology that is easy for employers to monitor, texting has been seen as different. And this isn’t just for regulated industries. All organizations can play along.

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Google says “this new capability, available on Google Pixel and other compatible Android Enterprise devices gives your employees all the benefits of RCS — like typing indicators, read receipts, and end-to-end encryption between Android devices — while ensuring your organization meets its regulatory requirements.”

There has long been a concern that employees have been turning to shadow ITsystems to communicate with colleagues — WhatsApp and Signal in particular. This latest update won’t help make that any better.

Meanwhile, if you have a work managed Android phone, watch for the message to confirm your texts are no longer as private as they were.

 

[Kheapathic]

If I get a work phone ever again. Gonna send a daily "Nigger Faggot" to my private Google Voice number.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Taxpayer-Funded Pedophiles Teacher's Unions Most Affected.

 

[Sexy Peach Emoji]

Why would you be chatting on a work device anyway? I would assume it's being monitored.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

Why would you be chatting on a work device anyway? I would assume it's being monitored.

Many people are quite stupid.

 

[Kheapathic]

Why would you be chatting on a work device anyway? I would assume it's being monitored.

This may be surprising, but people are stupid and/or get careless. There's also people who will hand out their work number, because while their private phone may be, off, silence, or otherwise unable to work, they'll be like "Here's my work number." Handing out your work number eventually becomes handing it out to Chinese spies and telling them how you want to rearrange their insides or sharing racist memes with your fellow chud buds. Either way, tell people "these devices are being watched" and they'll either ignore or just not care.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

You mean all the equipment my work lent me work use is not actually mine?!

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I always keep a personal phone. Not sure why anybody wouldn't when MVNOs are so cheap nowadays - I pay a whole $3 a month.

 

[._.]

Why would you be chatting on a work device anyway? I would assume it's being monitored.

I would agree but this reminded me the hysteria is a bit warranted because it follows Googles trend of revealing some huge privacy concern, then going 'Dont worry, you gotta be a real doofus to get caught sexting minors or something with this. It wont affect normal people, only people who goon at work".

And then 7 years later they go 'Okay truth time... You remember that thing? Yeah it kinda did affect everyone, Because its inherent to the app and the device it was just something that gets turned on or off but we have it on by default, woops! Well we werent doing anything with it but thats out there now so gl'

 

[Stabby_Pencil]

Can Google go back to it's old motto of 'don't be evil' for just a few months?

 

[robobobo]

When I got my latest job, my employer was all, "We don't care if you use your work phone as your personal phone too." Haha no. Not one whisper of anything short of flawlessly professional is ever touching my work phone. Anyone who permits something career-ending to pass through company-owned devices or channels deserves what they get for being a fucking moron.

 

[Margo Martindale]

on work-managed devices​

a nothingburger then, basically dont use company phones or laptops for personal shit, it baffles me that people will install shit like discord and steam on their work laptops.

 

[dreamworks face]

a nothingburger then, basically dont use company phones or laptops for personal shit, it baffles me that people will install shit like discord and steam on their work laptops.

my tard wranglers at work know to discord me if i was too lazy to open microsoft teams. (teams also doesn't work if i'm using fiddler and trying to debug something, it fucking sucks)

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

Good thing we use only Apple devices.

 

[dick brain]

Can Google go back to it's old motto of 'don't be evil' for just a few months?

Don't Be Evil, That's Our Market

 

[Gandhi's Left Hook]

a nothingburger then, basically dont use company phones or laptops for personal shit, it baffles me that people will install shit like discord and steam on their work laptops.

Man I had a manager who was in discord all day on his work computer. Guy was a total doucheflake. His "second office" was the shitter. He spent at least 2 hours a day in there. Man I hated that job.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Why would you be chatting on a work device anyway? I would assume it's being monitored.

We had the option to use the workphone as our primary phone with two SIM cards. A few coworkers do this, granted they're boomers.

 

[Otterly]

They want us all to use personal devices as work phones. I refused and they sent me some heap of shit android, which i happily ignore and keep on silent.
But in the USA, they won’t give you a work phone but insist you’re contactable constantly. So people use their personal phones which is madness. Keep them separate, and do nothing more exciting on your work devices than check the weather now and again