Google kicks off with beta release of Magic Compose, a new feature powered by AI to help users generating messages. However, Android Police has highlighted a significant caveat: the feature sends up to “20 previous messages” to Google’s servers in order to generate suggestions, even when using RCS with end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
The company provided a detailed explanation on the Support Page, clarifying that it will transmit these messages, including any accompanying emoji, reactions, and URLs, to its servers in order to assist its AI in generating suitable responses. Google also specifies that it will not send messages containing attachment files, voice messages or images. However, it mentions that “image captions and voice transcriptions may be sent.”
Google initially introduced end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on the app in 2020 and extended its availability to group chats in late 2022. Enabling this feature ensures that even Google, along with third parties, cannot access your messages. Despite sending your messages to Google’s servers when using Magic Compose with E2EE, the company asserts that it remains unable to read them.
Magic Compose is merely one of the numerous AI-driven functionalities that Google presented at its recent I/O event. As per Google, users can employ this feature to respond to text messages by utilizing “stylized, suggested responses within the context of their messages.” The feature is currently being gradually released to users enrolled in the Google Messages beta program.
If the feature is accessible to you, you will see a chat bubble located beside the message input field in the app. By selecting a suggested response from there, you can proceed to modify the current text using different predefined styles, such as “chill,” “excited,” or even “Shakespeare.” Currently, the feature appears to be limited to RCS messages, and there is no information available regarding when it might extend support to SMS/MMS.