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Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage (finance.yahoo.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage::Samsung has joined Google’s campaign to force Apple to make iMessage RCS-compatible—but European regulators are more likely to get that job done.

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[–] 75 points 2 years ago (21 children)

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.

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I have seen people literally say they like that iMessage is exclusive, and they like to keep Android users away/separate

    It was reeking of classism in addition to being generally a terrible thing to read

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I've heard of people not responding to the wrong colored bubbles or being judgemental, like my $1,200 phone is better than your $1,200 phone?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Bullet dodged. Thinking you're hot shit because you use the ultimate basic bitch phone is just ridiculous.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I knew a 29 y/o woman that switched to iPhone so that others with iPhones would see her text messages bubble as blue instead of green. Imagine blowing over a thousand dollars so that someone else sees blue rather than green in text messages. Meanwhile, I can make the bubble colors whatever color I want on my Android.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Top whack android phones aret really cheaper than iPhones these days so it's not classism as such. Yanks just seem to love to tribalise everything, see masks during Covid as another example. I think it's a result of having a two party political system.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    💀

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Nothing. Google Messages app has all the same features. The only problem is that Apple refuses to also support RCS (which Google messages uses) and so if an android user sends a message to an iPhone user, the iPhone user gets it as an SMS. If the Android user sends a picture, the iPhone user receives it as an MMS.

    In the rest of the world this is not an issue because most people use WhatsApp or Signal or Viber or any other local messaging app. Also most android phones have the Messages app as default which means if you message another Android user they will get it over WiFi/data in the messages app.

    But in the US for some reason the iPhone users consider getting an SMS as somehow bad and that the Android user is poor or inferior because they sent an SMS.

    It's totally stupid and only a US issue, but it's so strong that teenagers will be bullied if they don't have an iPhone for iMessage. So they all get iPhones in order not to be bullied. And this way Apple makes mega sales.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    The fact that other people they know also use it.

    The app itself is pretty much the same as any other modern messaging app, but network effects are everything when it comes to messaging services.

    This is why you see entire countries where everyone has WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or Telegram, depending on what other people in the country are using.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Encryption, photos are higher quality through it (this is where "Android cameras are bad" came from,) typing indicators, sending messages over Wi-Fi, iMessage games, and message effects.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Some of that isn't i-message specific though, right? I have a Pixel and it has high quality pictures, typing indicators, reads receipts, sends over wifi... the other stuff I don't think Android has but that's a bit gimicky anyway. Not trying to be an android fan girl but I really don't understand what makes i-message better.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The problem is the walled garden, both ecosystems have those features but they don’t work together. If all your friends have iPhones, there’s a lot of pressure to also have an iPhone. And once you’re in, you’re not likely getting out unless all your social circle does at once. That kind of lock in is extremely valuable.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    It isn't better, but it's an extreme example of Americas corporate fanaticism, everywhere else people say "well if Apple and Google don't play nice together, we'll use a third party app and skip it all". In the US they say, "if you don't have an iPhone that makes you worse than me somehow so this allows me to lord it over you".

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    All of this is available on just about every messaging service, so the real answer is tribalism and lack of consumer education.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    But still, if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you're using SMS, not RCS.

    I do believe RCS-compatibility for iMessage would make take a chunk out of iPhone sales honestly.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The EU has dragged Apple through the mud in order to make them change for the better, they will be able to do the same.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    USB C was a hardware change. Economically it was not viable to run separate production lines of lightning/ USB-C phones.

    RCS is a software issue. Supporting RCS in certain regions but not others (the US for example) is much simpler.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    True. So true in fact that I'd be willing to bet that even if the EU made them implement RCS they still wouldn't do it in the US. USB-C only worked because it's a hardware change and maintaining separate lightning and USB-C models and accessory ecosystems doesn't make sense. RCS is a software change that costs them nothing to NOT use in the only market where it would hurt them.

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