Apple on Wednesday said that it will introduce an update to its iMessage texting platform that will defend it against quantum-powered encryption breaking tech.

In a blog post, the company described the introduction of the post-quantum cryptographic protocol PQ3 as “the most significant cryptographic security upgrade in iMessage history”, claiming the tech ito have “the strongest security properties of any at-scale messaging protocol in the world.”

The blog post explains that Apple “rebuilt the iMessage cryptographic protocol from the ground up” and that PQ3 “will fully replace the existing protocol within all supported conversations this year.”

While quantum computing is still far from mainstream, major tech firms are increasingly looking for means of protecting themselves from potential future breakthroughs in quantum that could endanger communication tools.

The hypothetical moment such tech emerges has been dubbed ‘Q-Day’, with US and Chinese officials both pouring billions into quantum research and new encryption standards.

The Apple blog post surmises: “End-to-end encrypted messaging has seen a tremendous amount of innovation in recent years, including significant advances in post-quantum cryptography from Signal’s PQXDH protocol and in key transparency from WhatsApp’s Auditable Key Directory.

“The new PQ3 cryptographic protocol for iMessage combines post-quantum initial key establishment with three ongoing ratchets for self-healing against key compromise, defining the global state of the art for protecting messages against Harvest Now, Decrypt Later attacks and future quantum computers.”

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