If you’ve ever stared at a string of numbers and wondered whether the person on the other end of a text was really them, Google wants to make that awkward moment a lot easier — and a lot quicker. The company quietly began rolling out a QR-code based verification option inside Google Messages’ beta channel, a small but meaningful tweak to how Android handles encrypted RCS chats. The feature replaces (or supplements) the old 80-digit “compare keys” method with a tap-and-scan flow: point your phone at a contact’s code and you’ll know, faster, whether the keys match.

If you’re in the Messages beta and both people are using end-to-end encrypted RCS chats, the verification UI appears on a contact’s details page. Tap the contact name → Details → Verify encryption, and you’ll get a choice: show Your QR code or Scan contact’s QR code. Scan their code or let them scan yours, and the system confirms the keys match. If something goes sideways, the old 80-digit key comparison is still available as a backup.

That flow leans on Android’s underlying key-verification plumbing (the “Android System Key Verifier”), so the QR scan hands off cryptographic verification to system components rather than implementing it solely in Messages. The upshot: a camera scan becomes a human-friendly channel for proving that the encrypted session is actually between you and the person you think it is.

There are two simple problems this addresses:

1. Human friction. Comparing 80 digits aloud or over another channel is slow, error prone and awkward — most people don’t do it. A QR scan reduces that friction drastically.
2. Account takeovers and SIM swap attacks. If an attacker convinces a carrier to move a number (or otherwise hijacks a contact), they can impersonate that person. When keys change or verification breaks, Messages (and related Google services) can flag a contact as unverified — and with QR verification, you get a fast, visual way to confirm a trusted device.

Put bluntly: stronger, easier verification increases the chance people will actually verify, which reduces successful impersonation and man-in-the-middle attacks on text conversations.

Google first outlined this direction in October 2024 when it said it was building “a unified system for public key verification across different apps,” and explicitly mentioned QR scanning and number comparison as verification options. That blog post framed QR keys as a cross-app approach to public key verification rather than a Messages-only experiment.

The QR move in Messages also sits alongside a bigger authentication shift across Google: the company has told reporters it plans to phase out SMS-based two-factor codes for Gmail in favor of QR codes and passkey-style flows, arguing SMS is ripe for abuse and interception. That decision underscores a broad strategy: get people off fragile, network-based authentication (SMS) and toward device-bound, cryptographic flows (QR + passkeys).

The tradeoffs: convenience vs. new attack surfaces

QR codes feel intuitive, but they’re not magic. A few points to keep in mind:

• Security is cryptography, not pixels. The QR simply encodes a cryptographic fingerprint (the public-key data); the protection comes from verifying that fingerprint, not from the QR itself. That’s why Google keeps the 80-digit fallback — if scanning fails, you still have a canonical, verifiable representation.
• Scanning economics. QR scanning reduces human error but introduces UI and social dynamics: you and your contact must be able to exchange screens or physical proximity for scanning. That’s great in person, awkward remotely.
• Phishing caution. Any UI that asks you to scan needs careful design to prevent trickery (e.g., a malicious sender showing a fraudulent QR that maps to a bad key). The risk is lower than SMS interception, but real: implementation matters. Security vendors and identity-tech firms point out that QR-based auth is stronger than SMS when done right, but still needs safeguards like device binding and app-level confirmations.

What you should do

• If you value privacy for sensitive conversations (work, legal, finance), enable RCS Chat features and keep Google Messages updated. When the verification option appears, use it for accounts where impersonation would be harmful.
• Treat QR verification like a handshake: scan in person if possible. If you can’t meet, use the 80-digit comparison over an independent channel (a voice call, a video chat) rather than repurposing the same SMS thread.
• For account login security, favor passkeys or authenticator apps over SMS codes. Google itself is moving Gmail away from SMS 2FA for a reason: SMS is easy to intercept. If you haven’t set up passkeys or an authenticator app, it’s a good moment to do so.

The rollout is currently in beta and appears staggered: Google’s public statements say the system is intended for Android 9 and newer devices, and the company has been explicit that it wants the verification system to be usable across multiple apps — not just Messages. That means, over time, other messaging and identity flows could surface the same verification method, so you get consistent, portable verification UX across the OS. Watch for the beta widening to stable channels and for partner apps adopting the same Android System Key Verifier.

This QR code test is modest on the surface — a camera-scan instead of a string of numbers — but it’s meaningful in practice. By lowering the effort to confirm public keys, Google is nudging people toward safer behavior. Paired with Google’s plans to replace SMS-based 2FA with QR/passkey approaches, you can see a broader, sensible move away from fragile phone-number-based security toward device-bound cryptographic flows. As always, the benefit will come down to roll-out quality, UI clarity, and whether people actually use the feature — but if it avoids even a handful of SIM-swap impersonations and lets people verify quickly, it’s a step in the right direction.