[jedieaston]

There’s a good HN thread from earlier this year about that, but basically, you can disable iCloud Backup and enable Messages in the Cloud, so that all of the messages are still backed up and synced between your devices but the keys are not, so that Apple can not read them. Then you can back up to your Mac/PC instead.

[modeless]

But unless everyone you correspond with does this too, Apple can still read your messages to them.

[simonh]

Sure, the security of your communications to someone depends on how well they protect them, not just you. That’s always true.

[modeless]

But most end-to-end encrypted apps aren't configured by most of their users to send their messages and encryption keys directly to the author of the app. iMessage is.