All of a sudden, Apple announced a New Security Protocol for iMessage: PQ3 (A Post Quantum Cryptographic Protocol). It will be available with beta iOS 17.4; however, we’ll witness its complete launch by the last quarter of 2024.
Well, the officials have made this unexpected announcement to ensure more privacy and security in your iPhones. So, let’s see what’s the news!
Table of contents
Apple Announces PQ3 – A Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocol
Basically, Apple has announced PQ3 to protect iMessage from several quantum attacks. The company has stated PQ3 as a ‘groundbreaking protocol,’ and it’s the 1st one to hit “Level-3 Security”.
Apple has claimed that it is the most robust encryption protocol, which is even stronger than the one available in WhatsApp and Signal.
No doubt, Apple has ensured the security of iMessage since the beginning. Initially, in 2011, it was declared as end-to-end encrypted, and then in 2023, it reached the level of Contact key verification.
What does Apple have to Say about “A Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocol”
Well, the company has been consistently upgrading the privacy and security measures of iMessage, and via their recent blog post, they came up with a breaking statement;
“Today, we are announcing the most significant cryptographic security upgrade in iMessage history with the introduction of PQ3, a groundbreaking post-quantum cryptographic protocol that advances the state of the art of end-to-end secure messaging. With compromise-resilient encryption and extensive defenses against even highly sophisticated quantum attacks, PQ3 is the first messaging protocol to reach what we call Level 3 security — providing protocol protections that surpass those in all other widely deployed messaging apps. To our knowledge, PQ3 has the strongest security properties of any at-scale messaging protocol in the world.”

Moreover, the PQ3 (A Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocol) uses Kyber public keys. That mainly enables devices to create encryption keys for some initial texts. And later on, it would integrate a ‘novel post-quantum rekeying’ system for further action.
Furthermore, Mr. Douglas said, “The iMessage PQ3 protocol is a well-designed cryptographic protocol for secure messaging that uses state-of-the-art techniques for end-to-end encrypted communication. In my analysis using the reductionist security methodology, I confirmed that the PQ3 protocol provides post-quantum confidentiality, which can give users confidence in the privacy of their communication even in the face of potential improvements in quantum computing technology.”
PQ3 – Security Protocol for iMessage is rolling out with iOS 17.4
Gradually, the PQ3 will be rolling out along with the official launch of;
- iOS 17.4
- macOS 14.4
- watchOS 10.4
Apple hasn’t disclosed that would it be a part of Vision Pro, but we can surely expect it after the initial rollout.

Requirements by Apple while Creating PQ3
So, the company made sure to integrate PQ3 from the beginning of online interactions during your text so that the entire conversation would be safe from any sort of adversaries in the future. Secondly, they reduced the impact of key comprises for more reliability.
Next, Apple has incorporated a hybrid design which made it more ethical than the existing protocol and surpasses the expectations of users.
Subscribe to our blog, digialps.com, now to stay updated with the latest Tech and AI news.
Also Read:
- Neuralink’s First Human Subject Recovers and Controls Mouse with Mind –Musk Says!
- X Could Partner With Midjourney To Enhance Grok Capabilities
- Why SIERRA by OPENAI’s Chairman is the Next Big Thing in Business Talk!
- Rope-Opal: The Powerful Open-Source Face Swapping Tool Inspired By Roop
- Google Gemini 1.5 Pro Critiques a Video Generated by OpenAI Sora