Google announced that RCS is now the default in Messages by Google, as is encryption for both individual and group chats.

RCS is the successor to SMS, providing features on par with Apple’s iMessage and going far beyond what traditional SMS can do. its features include group administration, file sharing, read receipts, end-to-end encryption, and more.

Google has been pushing RCS adoption, and is now making it the default in Messages, according to a support document:

RCS is the modern industry standard for dynamic and secure messaging. And now, all of your RCS conversations in Messages by Google are end-to-end encrypted, including group chats, which keeps them private between you and the people you’re messaging.

To ensure more people benefit from this added security, RCS will now be enabled by default for new and existing users*, unless they’ve previously turned RCS off in Settings. You can always turn RCS on or off in Settings at any time.