Google and some of Europe’s largest telecoms operators have called on the European Union (EU) to designate iMessage as a “core” service that would require Apple open its iMessage service to Android.
Javier Espinoza for Financial Times:
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is investigating whether iMessage should be on a list of services that must comply with the new Digital Markets Act, and so be able to connect seamlessly with competitors such as WhatsApp.
Currently, only Apple users are able to communicate via iMessage, making its signature “blue bubble” texts a key factor in retaining iPhone owners’ loyalty, especially among younger consumers. When customers using smartphones running Google’s Android software join an iMessage chat group all the messages change colour, indicating it has defaulted to standard SMS.
Android users also lose some functionality, such as the quality of videos and photos.
Apple declined to comment but pointed to an earlier statement that said: “iMessage is a great service that Apple users love because it provides an easy way to communicate with friends and family while offering industry-leading privacy and security protections. Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA.”
The commission declined to comment on the letter but said the investigation into iMessage was ongoing. The commission has until February to come to a decision.
MacDailyNews Take: In related news, Pepsi is petitioning the EU to force Coca-Cola to share its cola recipe on account of “it’s only ‘fair.'”
The “core” service of text messaging is SMS.
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We all want interoperability. If Android wants iMessage, it can license it.
I wasn’t aware it was up for being licensed by 3rd parties.
Texting WORKS on Android and iPhone. What’s the problem again, Google?…
I guess the non-iPhone world will just continue their trudge towards standardizing on RCS for their E2E message encryption.
There are far more Android devices in the world than there are iPhones. It would seem if anyone wanted access to the other’s messaging software it would be Apple. Kinda like Microsoft complaining about Apple not allowing them to incorporate Keynote into PowerPoint.
Not 9:1 as MS was.
Keep anything Android the f&%k away from anything Apple. Same goes for Google, Microsoft & Meta.
Data mining sucks.
I’ll take the walled garden every day of the week.
You’ll have to petition Apple to remove using Google Search under the hood then for their multiple homegrown apps.
Truth is, having Android users in our Message groups is a drain on us Apple users.
I can’t choose to do life and work with only Apple users.
So there is merit to this being a burden for Apple to bear.
The suit is going forward in Europe instead of the USA, for obvious reasons.
If it comes down to it… I’m curious if it would be an effective strategy to just disable all iMessage functionality and turn EVERYONE green based on location in all of Europe. Show a notice that government was misguided, and rather than compromise features/security it was will just default back to regular SMS. Let the people complain and direct that frustration to government. I know more people use WhatsApp (and will then switch to it) but what would it really be worth it to open it up for everyone and maintain a separate app? Alternatively, I guess they could write some kind of junky android app just to say there is an offering.
Would probably backfire and give incentive for those in the EU to push use of RCS.