Apple Encryption: iMessage and Mail apps

Topic

New Reply

J9438 wrote:

I especially commend Apple for doing this very thing with its iMessage automatically on its phones (although I admit I was not aware of this for a long time and the difference between a text noted with a green or blue symbol

I do not have a smart phone but I do have an iPad (Air – 2nd Gen and 5th Gen). Since I don’t have texting capability, all of my iMessages are in a blue bubble, coming from someone who has an Apple device and is using iMessages to send the message. Does that mean that these iMessage conversations (either received or sent messages) are encrypted?

I am wondering about the Apple Mail app, too. It is set up to access my email from my ISP provider. I can also read or send email via this Mail app. So, when I send email via this Mail app on my iPad, is the email encrypted?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kirsty

Reply | Quote

Replies

iMessages are encrypted end-to-end.
SMSs are not encrypted.
Mail is not encrypted but you can encrypt mail.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Myst, Kirsty

Reply | Quote

Alex5723 wrote:

Mail is not encrypted but you can encrypt mai

Do you mean Apple Mail is not encrypted (i.e., the Apple Mail app does not encrypt mail), but you can get it (the Apple Mail app) to encrypt it. If so, how?

Reply | Quote

Apple’s Mail is just a front-end, not an email system in its own right.

When you set it up, you choose the back-end email system that you want Mail to access.

If the back-end system doesn’t encrypt natively then, no, email sent via Apple’s Mail front-end won’t be encrypted.

Hope this helps…

3 users thanked author for this post.

Myst, WCHS, Kirsty

Reply | Quote

WCHS wrote:

I do not have a smart phone but I do have an iPad (Air – 2nd Gen and 5th Gen). Since I don’t have texting capability

If you have an iPad then you DO have built-in texting ability, whether it’s via wifi or a cellular (mobile) connection.

The iMessage app allows you to message (text) other Apple users (encrypted) and Android users (not encrypted ‘cos SMS).

The colour of the message bubbles will show you. Blue = encrypted; Green = Not encrypted.

There are also third-party iPadOS apps like WhatsApp that can text message.

Hope this helps…

Reply | Quote

WCHS wrote:

Since I don’t have texting capability,

Rick Corbett wrote:

If you have an iPad then you DO have texting ability, whether it’s via wifi or a cellular (mobile) connection.

I probably mis-stated this: what I meant is that I can’t text because I don’t have a mobile phone to text with.

If I did have a mobile phone, then received iMessages would be in blue bubbles and received text messages would be in green bubbles on the iPad, right?

Reply | Quote

WCHS wrote:

what I meant is that I can’t text because I don’t have a mobile phone to text with

OK, I know what you mean. Let me try to explain it a different way.

I have two online communication providers:

1: a virtual phone company (giffgaff) that piggybacks on the O2 cellular data network for phone communication (irrespective of whether it’s via a smartphone or not a smartphone via 4G or 5G);

2: I also have a broadband provider (Virgin Media).

My data plan with giffgaff (O2) is tiny, hence why I only pay £6/month. So… on my iPhone I have ‘mobile data’ turned OFF…. which means I don’t receive non-voice data at all, only voice-based communication. No text messages at all, irrespective of whether iMessage (encrypted) or SMS (unencrypted)

However, the moment I get home and I’m within wifi range then my iPhone gets bombarded with queued-up data via my broadband provider’s wifi-enabled router… which means that messages – encrypted (blue) and unencrypted (green) flood in to Apple’s Messages app.

None of this has doodly-squat to do with messaging systems. One’s a data transport layer (cell vs broadband), the other is a messaging protocol. They are different.

An iMessage to another iMessage user is encrypted ‘cos it’s an end-to-end secure protocol. If you send a message to an Android user from your iPad then the protocol used is SMS…. and not encrypted.

You CAN text from your iPad if you provide the Apple Mail app with a valid email provider. You don’t need a phone (smart or not) at all. Your router will do its job and route your messages via wifi.

Hope this helps…

Reply | Quote

Rick Corbett wrote:

If you send a message to an Android user from your iPad then the protocol used is SMS…. and not encrypted.

I don’t see how I can send a message to an Android user from my iPad when I am in iMessage. If I put the phone number in the “to” line of a New iMessage box, compose the message, and hit the ‘send’ arrow, I get the response “Not delivered”. If I put the Android user’s name in the “to’ line of a New iMessage box, the Android user’s e-mail address comes up, but there is also a pop-up that says “xxxx@xxxx.com is not registered with iMessage” and therefore, the iMessage will not send.

I am reading your reply as if it were ‘send a message with iMessage to’ and so it seems that I am not fitting all of the pieces of the puzzle together. Either that, or I don’t have one or more pieces to the puzzle, in the first place.

Remember I cannot text because I do not have whatever it takes to ‘text’, i.e., send/receive text messages (I guess that means that I do have the SMS protocol in place, which an iPhone provides, to do this?)

Here are the puzzle pieces:
I do not have a mobile phone/cell phone/smart phone; I have a landline phone. I have a Windows 10 laptop and an Apple iPad. I have a WiFi modem/router. I have an email account from my ISP provider. My iPad is WiFi connected, my laptop (Windows 10) is Wi-Fi connected, and I access my email (thus, sending or receiving email messages to an Android user or an Apple user using the Android user’s or Apple user’s email address) in any of these 3 ways:
a) via the ISP provider’s web address using Firefox on my laptop or Safari on my iPad
b) via Thunderbird on my laptop (which is a pass-though to the ISP provider’s web address)
c) via the iPad Mail app (which is also a pass-through to the ISP provider’s web address)

I can send or receive iMessage messages to or from Apple users only, and only on my iPad.

The only way an Android user can reach me is via my e-mail address. If an Android user texts me, it goes into nether land.

So, as I see it, it is impossible for me to send a message via iMessage to an Android user.

————————

Rick Corbett wrote:

which means that messages (encrypted/unencrypted) flood in.

These are all messages that you see in the iMessage app?
encrypted ones came from Apple users who used iMessage and are therefore in a blue bubble?
unencrypted ones came from Android users who could not use iMessage and are therefore in a green bubble?

And you get both blue and green bubbles (can communicate in iMessage with both Android and Apple users) because you have an iPhone?

And I see only blue bubbles (can communicate in iMessage only with Apple users) because I do not have an iPhone?

Reply | Quote

WCHS wrote:

You CAN text from your iPad if you provide the Apple Mail app with a valid email provider.

I think part of my problem in getting a good grasp of whether or not I can use my iPad to send a message to an Android user lies in the meaning of the word ‘text’. I guess it depends on the context, i.e., Here I think you mean ‘You can send a message (the message would be an e-mail) from your iPad if you provide the Apple Mail app with a valid email address.’

As for context, if you have both an iPhone and an iPad and are sending to an Android user,
on the iPhone: Can you send a message with the Apple Mail App and send a message with the iMessage App. (or are you limited to sending it only with the iMessage app?)
on the iPad: Can you send a message with the Apple Mail App and send a message with the iMessage app (or are you limited to sending it only via the Apple Mail app?).

and if you have just an iPad and are sending to an Android user,
on the iPad: It seems that you are limited to sending it only via the Apple Mail app? (i.e., sending it via the iMessage app won’t work)

Reply | Quote

Set up Messages on iPad

Using iMessage to Android turns the message to SMS/MMS with the green color.
SMS/MMS are not encrypted.

https://www.community.com/post/green-texts

1 user thanked author for this post.

Rick Corbett

Reply | Quote

WCHS wrote:

if you have just an iPad and are sending to an Android user, on the iPad: It seems that you are limited to sending it only via the Apple Mail app

No, you are not limited to only using Apple’s Mail, which, as I have already explained is just a front-end to email service providers.

You can also use Apple’s Messages app to send either iMessages to another Apple  user or SMS to an Android user.

You can also use other messaging apps like WhatsApp… as I have already mentioned.

Hope this helps…

Reply | Quote

Rick Corbett wrote:

…or SMS to an Android user.

But, I have no cellular connection=SMS on my iPad and I have no mobile phone (thus no cellular connection=SMS there either). So, on my iPad, I am limited to using the Mail app, which uses WiFi, thus sending a message to an Android user’s email.

Reply | Quote

Rick Corbett wrote:

Or via another messaging app like WhatsApp… as I have already mentioned.

There is no WhatsApp for iPad.

Reply | Quote

Alex5723 wrote:

There is no WhatsApp for iPad.

There are lots of WhatsApp connectoids. You mean there is no *genuine* WhatsApp app. They’re all just methods of connecting to a messaging protocol. OP appears confused about the differences about email vs messaging.

Reply | Quote

This is what the settings for iMessages look like.
You have to be logged in with an Apple ID, as the messages between iPhones (free) go through their server. SMS messages go through cellular connections (data limitations).

The second section first entry is smartphone, mine is an iPhone (copper based land lines don’t receive messages, not sure about VoIP “land lines” but I doubt it)
second entry is my email addy (maybe the messages come to your email?)

At the bottom, again my iPhone number.

1 user thanked author for this post.

WCHS

Reply | Quote

PKCano wrote:

You have to be logged in with an Apple ID, as the messages between iPhones (free) go through their server. SMS messages go through cellular connections (data limitations).

Ah-Ha, that’s the key!!

Reply | Quote

We have a copper based landline coming to the house that serves as a carrier for WiFi and we receive all SMS and iMessages. We also have cellular data coming to the house, all this through ATT. I have a choice to interact with SMS on my iPad but opt out and restrict those to my iPhone only. If I do choose to receive SMS messages on my iPad, they come through just fine, but I limit my iPad to iMessage only. Have no idea if this helps, it’s just what we have here in the outback.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

Reply | Quote