Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage

The pressure doesn't matter, apple makes a legitimate amount of money from people scared of being a different colored bubble. Unless someone actually writes it into law and makes a provision that all the bubbles must appear the same, nothing will change

Unless the EU makes them use RCS they never will. In the US iMessage is literally THE REASON people buy the iPhone. It's their main selling point. They don't care how much pressure you place on them, they aren't going to lose those sales willingly.

My issue with RCS is its only open to other device makers, like you can't make RCS apps cause you need a special license. Its a closed system that on android will likely always depend on google

"Lol, no." -Tim Cook, probably.

I remember Steve Jobs stating on stage that the protocol will be opened up when iMessage was revealed. Apparently this statement surprised the developers of it, because they didn’t know anything about that (based on some rumors).

Then that statement was silently ignored.

They aren't going to budge, at least not willingly.

This is where the EU could really make it a reality.

I have zero interest in using any Apple service. I've never needed to, and I never will.

They can keep their imessage thing, I hadn't even heard of it until just now. I'm good.

But then how will Apple drive teenagers to suicide because they got an Android for Christmas and are relentlessly mocked for having green chat bubbles??

Nobody I know uses iMessage (or RCS for that matter) here in Germany. Most people use WhatsApp.

People keep getting messages the app and iMessage the protocol confused. While never written that way (as far as naming goes), I’ve seen nothing to indicate that the EU isn’t just saying that Messages the app doesn’t just need hooks to allow third party apps to integrate into the one interface. It’s about adding more bubble colors as it were. So stuff like WhatsApp would just pop up in the same feed over whatever protocol it uses.

I don't get why people like RCS in this context. It has the same problem as iMessage.

On Android you have to use Google Messages to get it. Third party apps don't work with it because Google never opened it up to them. How common is RCS without Google Messages? Even on Samsung phones it goes via Google.

How common is iMessage without an Apple product?

Why does Google want them to use iMessage? Probably since the data would flow through them.

Same shiz, different company.

What happended with forcing interoperability with different services like WhatsApp and Messenger? Would be great if we could just have one app for all messages like on Windows Phone back in the day 🙏

I would love if they would just roll out an iMessage app to android. Ideally free.

I could realistically see them roll out an apple subscription pack to android eventually. Give users a way to access Apple Music, Fitness, etc. May even allow android users make use of Apple Watch.

I’m not an Apple fan boy, but this seems like a decent compromise from a business perspective. This meets a need and I don’t think there’s a decent enough argument that it would cannibalize iPhone sales (flagship models anyway)

People actually use that? Everybody I know is using whatsapp and/or signal. Nobody bothers about proprietary crap.

Yeah fuck apple but seriously, RCS is fucking stupid. We have so many nice open protocols and RCS is the best we can get?

Doesn’t the EU DMA would eventually force Apple, Whatsapp… to open up ?

I’d love to see an open, secure, universal rich messaging standard adopted by everyone but we know that’s not gonna happen.

Carriers have literally no incentive to improve on SMS, I doubt they’ll lose any customers because of a lack of RCS adoption.

Do I like the locked in nature of iMessage? Not really, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal here (UK).

I just don’t like how Google talks about their proprietary messaging service as though it’s an industry standard. It’s not. Google RCS is not RCS.

I don't want next-gen SMS. I want adoption of Internet based and democratic standard instead.

David Meyer put a lot of effort into this story and it shows.

Who is he again?

I don't get why people keep suggesting RCS as a solution.
1)No one outside USA cares about SMS or RCS
2)A messaging app is better anyway, be it whatsapp or signal or telegram or imessage

The only people caring about RCS are USA Android users, but since Google is an USA company, they somehow think that the entire world is like USA Android users.
Protip: no we are not.

Let’s be real: there’s a lot of self-interested whining from Samsung and Google, but there isn’t any pressure.

Apple doesn’t want to that because they make money from iMessage. Android wouldn’t want you to do that if they had iMessage. If you use Android and have RCS then you don’t need iMessage because you already have the features you want. Android only wants iMessage be opened so Apple makes less money. Don’t get caught up in their war. Use your RCS messenger and don’t be worried about what Apple has.

Who fucking cares, it’s a private company they’ll do what they want more power to em

Apple has a better solution. Why should they adopt an inferior one?