“Apple’s big messaging moves were among the biggest and most unexpected announcements of Tim Cook’s WWDC keynote Monday,” David Pierce writes for Wired. “iMessage gained a host of features, from ‘invisible ink’ that hides a message until it’s swiped, to in-line Apple Music links that play seamlessly in-app, to ‘digital touch,” which lets you send images you draw, or even your heartbeat. It’s also, like Facebook Messenger, now open to third-party developers.”
“All of this is big. It’s good news for Apple, since it’ll undoubtedly convince a few holdouts to get iPhones so they can use all the cool new features with their friends,” Pierce writes. “If Apple wants to be more than an iPhone company, though, if it wants to be a software and services company the way it claims, there’s one other thing it needed to do: make iMessage for Android.”
“Facebook Messenger isn’t an ‘app’ in the traditional sense, it’s an ecosystem. A whole world, from app stores to payment structures, all happening within Apple’s devices but outside of its direct reach. It doesn’t matter which hardware you’re holding, what you’re using is Messenger. As apps and services continue to stress cross-platform harmony, Apple’s walled garden starts to look more like a co-op,” Pierce writes. “By that logic, Apple will succeed only if it not only hosts these full-stack, do-everything apps, but builds them as well… Unless Apple’s afraid that iMessage is the only thing between iPhone owners and Android phones, the way BBM was for BlackBerry back in the day, there’s plenty of upside in opening iMessage to everyone. Oh, and ask BlackBerry how going the closed-off route turned out.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Certainly, iMessage is not the only thing keeping people on iPhones and we do believe that Apple has further plans for iMessage that will be revealed in good time.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iMessage and Siri will allow iOS 10 users to send money via Square Cash – June 13, 2016
Apple to deliver iMessage to Android at WWDC – June 9, 2016
