Google has rolled out a major update that may worry many employees. After this change, SMS and RCS messages on company-provided Android work phones will no longer remain private. With a new feature called Android RCS Archival, employers will be able to view, store and monitor all messages—whether sent, received, edited or even deleted.

This feature is limited to enterprise-managed work devices, but it has sparked a serious debate about employee privacy. Google says the feature is designed to help companies meet compliance and regulatory requirements.

How does this new feature work?
Google’s Android RCS Archival tool allows organisations to connect third-party archiving apps with Google Messages. According to Senior Product Manager Ian Marsanyi, all RCS message activity on a managed device is automatically shared with the archiving application. This includes every sent message, incoming message, edited message, and even deleted chats.
The company’s IT team can then access and review this data as required.

Employees worry about loss of privacy
Until now, many users believed that RCS messages were more private because of encryption, unlike email, which can be monitored by employers. But with this update, even personal conversations done on a company phone are no longer guaranteed to be private.
Google has stated that employees will receive a visible alert whenever message archiving has been enabled on their device.

Which phones and apps are affected?
The change applies only to:
• Android phones fully managed by the employer
• Devices that do not have a separate personal “work profile”
It does NOT affect personal smartphones.
It also does not apply to apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or any other third-party messaging services.
Only SMS, MMS and RCS messages sent through Google Messages can be archived and monitored.