Google Fi Calls Now Have End-To-End Encryption

There are a lot of people around the world that are particularly concerned about their privacy. It's not just people who might be talking about confidential business information that want privacy. Individuals also want conversations amongst friends and family to be completely private. To facilitate that, many voice communication and chat apps have end-to-end encryption.

Google has now announced that its mobile phone service called Google Fi has end-to-end encryption enabled. Google says it enabled encryption because it believes that no one other than the user and the person they're talking to should hear what they say. Encryption is being bundled into phone calls directly from the Phone app.

Google says calls between two Android devices on the Fi network will be secured using end-to-end encryption by default. Unfortunately, encryption is not supported for calls between Android and iPhone devices or between iPhone devices. The encryption feature is included for supported devices at no additional charge on all plans.

Encryption during calls works alongside the integrated VPN FI provides and the spam blocking feature to prevent unwanted calls from coming through. Users will see audio and visual cues on calls supporting encryption, showing the calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. Users will hear a unique ringing tone when placing an eligible call, and there will be a lock symbol on the screen just before the call is connected.

The person you're calling will also see the lock symbol on their screen. Google notes that Messages by Google already automatically encrypts text conversations when the Messages and chat features are enabled. That encryption ensures that text messages can't be captured and read by others. Google says the end-to-end encryption feature will rollout for calls between Android phones made on the Fi network in the coming weeks. There is no indication of when or if the feature will come to iPhones.