“Android and iOS may be destined to do battle forever, but when it comes to apps, the relationship is a little friendlier. Countless iOS users enjoy Google’s services on their iPhones, and in fact, the acclaimed Gboard keyboard actually began its life as an iOS exclusive before making its way to the Play Store several months later,” Michael Simon writes for Greenbot. “While Apple hasn’t been nearly as generous with its offerings, it does offer Apple Music and Beats Pill as a concession to former Beats Music subscribers.”
“However, there’s a load of untapped potential in the Play Store,” Simon writes. “After all, Apple doesn’t just sell iPhones, and many Android users have other Cupertino-made products that they use on a regular basis. So here are some Apple apps I’d love to see show up in the Play Store.”
• AirPort utility
• Remote
• TV app
• iCloud Drive
• Facetime
• Messages: Now, I understand all of the reasons why Apple wouldn’t want to release Messages for the Play Store, but here’s one why it should: spite. Google has struggled mightily to create a uniform messaging system on Android, and with one fell swoop, Apple could undermine their entire effort with any app that not only syncs across all Android phones but also works across all Apple devices, too. If Apple wants to keep some of the cooler features like apps and stickers exclusive to the iOS version that’s fine, but even the staunchest iPhone haters would appreciate a combination SMS and over-the-top messaging app on Android that just works.
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: At one point, as a source told us last June, Apple was planning to deliver Messages to Android. Perhaps they still are? Perhaps we’ll see it at WWDC 2017?
Such a move would be welcomed by those of us who have to communicate with those who’ve settled for a lesser, derivative platform and would love to finally be able to do so via Wi-Fi and without having to be subjected to those horrid green bubbles from the Hee Haw demographic.
SEE ALSO:
Why I remain unconvinced when Apple denies plans to introduce iMessage to Android – June 17, 2016
Why Apple’s holding back Messages for Android: Hardware sales – June 15, 2016
Apple’s new iMessage is great, but why the hell isn’t it on Android, yet? – June 14, 2016
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
Don’t ever release Messages for Android. Let them suffer with their second rate messaging apps.
I I mean, why not? Apple supports Microsoft with office for Mac, iPad. Don’t be so myopic.
That’s Microsoft supporting Mac. Apple doesn’t make iWork for Windows either.
Apple had to approve (app store) Office for iPad. So that means they obviously endorse it. I get it, MS doesn’t need iWork.
Would putting iMessage on Android open up the Apple ecosystem to all the android virus nonsense????
Cross platform is nice if it can be done safely. Obviously Android users would have to update their software to newer versions which they do not willingly participate in….
No. It is a serperate physical device. Duh.
Ok, why should Apple make their apps available for Android? I thought that Steve Jobs made it clear that Android got NONE OF IT! If you want the best, then get an iPhone. Sure, Apple did make iTunes for Windows but that was a special case. iPhones are accessible now and there’s no reason to make these apps available to Android.
This isn’t Job’s Apple anymore.
I like both Apple and this site, but what does “Hee Haw” mean anyway? Please tell me this site isn’t comparing Android users to people from small towns. Almost reminds me of the time Tim Cook said Android was like Europe. This attitude only brings out the smug attitudes of some of the liberal urban dwellers who use this site, and I don’t care for that. Is there a way to not make fun of Android users at the expense of small town Apple fans like me?
MDN might need to keep adding that link every time they decide to use the term “HeeHaw”. It might be fun seeing if it beats out the times they use the nuclear cloud for Samsung.
It still comes across as much of an insult as flyover states!
Here is Brazil, WhatsApp is dominant the message space. Mainly because iPhones are costly and people tend to go with chipper Android based wanna be smartphones.
Even in families that can buy more than one iPhone, they tend to have WhatsApp installed because of their friends don’t have iMessages.
The “Hee Haw” comment could only have been made by a person who — at least at the moment of publishing the post — experienced a complete failure of empathy for the many millions of people less financially fortunate than the publisher of MDN. I think an apology is in order or an “update” with wording change. There are other kinder ways to express the sentiment that Android users are less discerning than iOS users, by and large. If you were to put it that way, your readers would be less likely to mistake you for an a__hole.
Dear A-hole,
Don’t comment on things you don’t understand.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. – Abraham Lincoln, Republican
Hee Haw doesn’t inherently refer to those who are less financial fortunate. It mainly refers to those of a particular, less educated mindset.
Those who, ironically enough, are most likely to share the political beliefs of MDN.
AirPort Utility? With Apple preparing to kill the AirPort line, why would you want that?
I think Hee-Haw comment is reserved here exclusively for those who have the means, but still choose Android due to their own foolishness (letting Best Buy or carrier salesmen hoodwink them into an Android purchase).
I must say, though, it is not easy to tell to whom MDN is specifically referring, and such an imprecise label can easily reach well beyond the fairly narrow scope it likely intends to cover.
I remember MDN discussing that demographic before…
That was an interesting piece I had never read, even though I have been a regular visitor for long before that was written.
The problem is that MDN has decided to use the term in a rather particular manner, and imbued with their own particular meaning. One that an average person would not think of without the rather complicated exposition that MDN supplies in their article.
Agreed. As a child, using my father’s slang for an automobile differential among a group of women resulted in a totally different response than I expected. When I found out why, I stopped using it.
Maybe they could introduce a new colour – green for SMS, blue for iMessage and brown for AndroiMessage.