Epic and Apple are preparing to battle it out in court over the App Store (remember that whole Fortnite debacle?), so in the lead-up to that showdown, both sides presented filings where they laid out their cases. In the filing published by Epic, where they spent time deposing prominent Apple executives, they make the case that Apple has taken numerous measures to lock people into their ecosystem. I’d imagine they are suggesting that if Fortnite can’t then be accessed outside of the App Store on iOS devices that that’s anti-competitive, etc. However, it’s the mentions in depositions about iMessage that grabbed our Android attention.
There’s an entire section in the filing (PDF) about iMessage and how Apple uses it to keep users in their system. Taking it a step further, Apple executives openly admit that they were working on an Android version of iMessage, but decided against it because they had more to gain if iMessage remained off Google’s operating system.
During the deposition of Eddie Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Cue said that in 2013 there were plans to make iMessage for Android where it would have had “cross-compatibility with the iOS platform so that users of both platforms would have been able to exchange messages with one another seamlessly.” Why didn’t it happen?
During a deposition with Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering, he acknowledged that putting “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” That’s funny enough, but you get what Apple is thinking – Android phones can be had for super cheap and they would be the ultimate option for kids, assuming the messaging capabilities were right and worked with their parents’ phones. By making messaging a mess if a family were to split up operating systems, the thought was that they’d just give in and all buy Apple products.
Keeping that in mind, my boy Phil Schiller, now an Apple Fellow, agreed that Android shouldn’t get iMessage, but was apparently more blatant in admitting that it’s because they want to lock people onto iOS. In a response to an email from a former Apple employee who suggested “the #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage. . . iMessage amounts to serious lock-in,” Schiller commented that “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us, this email illustrates why.”
So for all of the talk over the years about the chances of iMessage coming to Android and everyone assuming Apple wouldn’t do it because they knew it kept people on iPhones, we now know that’s exactly the truth.
A sad fact and a reminder that a single app can and colored bubble can trap people into a a very very expensive and rigid ecosystem.
Don’t know it. Don’t care. No single app should be enough to hold anyone into a particular ecosystem. Come on people.
Greedy and shady business practices like this is why I’ll never spend a cent on or own any Apple product out of principle. Even if the iPhone is the best phone one year, I still wouldn’t get one because the competitive landscape is pretty even now and you can’t really go wrong with any company’s flagship.
Oh, and if someone judges you for being a green bubble, then that person is not worth having in your life. Period.
never understood how some android fans make Apple seem like the “Evil” corporation and android (Google?) the “good” guys. News flash, all corporations are “evil” and exploitative, that’s how they function. no need to take sides in some pointless OS war, just buy what works best for you
Apple has no obligation to share its technology with a competing platform. To suggest otherwise in unrealistic
the wanting to force Apple to make iMessage on Android/calling it a monopoly for that/all that, etc is so damn stupid. that’s like calling Taco Bell a monopoly because I can’t put its Cheesy Gordita Crunch at a McDonalds or Burger King lol. think people, think!
Apple should release Imessage on Android as a subscription. Thats how they can make money off it.
Been saying this. The top 2 reasons current iPhone users are with Apple is because of their ecosystem & iMessage.
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I feel like the only person who never really cared about iMessage, at all. I don’t understand the hype. I don’t understand why people need it so much more than other ubiquitous messaging platforms like Telegram outside of SMS.. and even then.. why text people?
Does it really come down to blue and green bubbles for folks?
This just goes to show that the rest of Apple’s platform is not competitive enough to retain its users. I’m not saying this to be facetious, but when Google offers its entire platform to iOS users and Android still succeeds like crazy, it says a lot.
I mean, they are both succeeding like crazy but in different ways. Android has a massive base of users, many using inexpensive phones. Apple has the advantage in affluent users, who spend $1200 on phones every couple years, and more dough on apps and services (see the same old headline Apple trots out every year about how much more its users spend on apps, on average).
If it weren’t for Samsung, Android would be dead. If Samsung decided to make their own OS, there goes Android. This post will ruffle a lot of feathers but it’s the truth. Google is clueless and has been for a while now.
Most people outside these tech sites only know and care for Apple and Samsung.
iMessage not being platform-agnostic is an instant deal breaker for me as a messenger. I know this doesn’t come across the same way on an Android website, but all the purported benefits of iMessage fall apart completely when messaging someone not on an iPhone. I’m sure that’s supposed to encourage you to get all your contacts on iPhone as well but that’s never going to happen. The ‘message’ I receive from iMessage being exclusive is “you cannot rely on any features to be consistent across your contacts.” That is an instant failure. I’d rather message people across multiple apps (RCS/Signal/etc.) where all the features work with each one, than use a single app where it’s entirely hit and miss as to whether any given feature works based on what device the other person is using.
Iphone users are so basic and many are ignorant about android. they only want tonise imessage. When there so many texting apps that work for both os’s
If I cared in the least about imessage I’d get an Iphone.
No surprise here.
It’s surprising to me how much the Android world has exploded by such a simple business strategy. I’m not pro-Apple, but what company would choose to give their best features and ideas to their competitors, knowing that the result will be a lack of revenue? Haha, “Crest toothpaste says that they won’t tell Colgate their whitening formula because they would ‘lose business’
i feel guilty, just went to the darkside for the first time last week. i can honestly say that i miss my s21 and that android is superior!
Maybe if Google wasn’t constantly starting new messaging services and dropping them a year later they’d have a compelling alternative to iMessage. But alas they have RCS, used by exactly nobody.
OR
How about you google heads HOLD GOOGLE ACCOUNTABLE and push them to create ONE chat app that works as well as IMessage does? Why should Apple be forced to put IMessage on Android?
Apple shouldn’t have to do what Google has failed to do for 9 years.
iMessage uses a proprietary Apple protocol that is patented so there can’t be an iMessage clone.
There are technologies that come close, like RCS tho. You are angry at the wrong people.
In other news water is wet.
Make it a subscription $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year. Boom everyone wins.
I’m still trying to figure what the big deal with Imessage is. My wife and sister both have iphones and we have zero issues texting each other. Pictures, videos of the kids, gif’s, all work and play with no problem. Videos are clear and play with no skipping. I text my wife from my computer at work, also no problem. All my text are backed up onto my google drive, so when i switch phones they pop up on the new phone, am i missing something? Why would i leave my Fold 2 for an iphone over text?
I have to say, I don’t understand, and have never understood, why iMessage is such a big deal. I’ve had iPhones and Android phones, I’ve switched back and forth without issue. I’ve never seen what’s supposed to be so special about iMessage. I mean, it’s fine, I guess, but nothing about it has ever seemed “better” to me. My family and friends all have a mix of iPhones and Androids, and I’ve never had a better or worse experience communicating with any of them regardless of me, or them, using iMessage or not. Maybe you’re just maniacally concerned about what color someone’s text bubble appears in conversation? If that’s the case, seek help from a mental health professional, because that’s just not healthy.
“My family and friends all have a mix of iPhones and Androids” – that’s why it’s not much of an issue for you.
A lot of people in the U.S. are in a different situation where most/all of their friends and family have iPhones. When that’s the case, iMessage is pretty attractive – and not so much to you, but to all of the other iPhone owners whose messaging experience you “ruin” (hyperbole intended) by not being on iMessage.
One example is sharing media with family. Videos of kids come across in high quality via iMessage, which is not the case at all via SMS. Sure, there are other messaging platforms that can be used. But then you have to ask your family to get on that other platform rather than using the default… etc etc etc
It is ABSOLUTELY a first world problem, but the fact of the matter is if everybody you care about is on an iPhone, and you message with those people a lot, iMessage is a superior experience.
“‘My family and friends all have a mix of iPhones and Androids’ – that’s why it’s not much of an issue for you.”
It’s not clear to me why that would make a difference. My whole point was that I’ve been in lots of conversations that were 100% iMessage and lots that were not, either because I or someone else was the one person not using iMessage. And if there’s any benefit to the 100% iMessage experience, I’ve never been able to notice it. Maybe I’m just insufficiently attentive. But saying the benefits of iMessage aren’t an issue for me because I frequently experience conversations with and without iMessage doesn’t really make sense to me.
Maybe I misunderstood your first comment, but my point was basically if you’re not experiencing iMessage conversations very often, then that’s likely part of the reason why you don’t understand how nice iMessage can be. But maybe that was too much of an assumption on my part. 🙂
Does anyone actually want I message on Android? I have seen it on other people’s phones and have no interest in it.
sadly, I think Android users would even be willing to pay to have iMessage on Android. But most companies are about the walled garden than openness.
Had iMessage ever been available on Android before I left, I would have paid.
Real talk. At this point, what’s the difference between Apple’s iMessage and Android’s Messages. Other than the fact that Android users have to be concerned that it will be rebranded to “Play Messages” or “Message” or “Communication” or “Conversations” or “Chat” or back to “Hangouts”, “Duo” or whatever hairbrained idea he had.
You just answered your own question. Apple will continue to iterate and improve upon an already great product, while Google is likely to continue to rebrand, reinvent, or outright eliminate one messaging service after another.
Imessage is in a league of its own compared to Android Messages.. Sure RCS takes things in the right direction but it isnt supported yet by all phones. Imessage offers a much better messaging platform. It would be like having Telegram or WhatsApp quality of messaging with the added ability to send SMS as well. The only thing that Android Messages has that i wish Imessage had was the ability to use Imessage on the Web like Android Messages. Sure if you use a Mac you can already do this but from a Windows machine its not possible.
Does Android’s RCS messaging not work on all android phones? Seems like Android Messages and iMessage become very similar as they both have the ability to send better messages within their ecosystem and SMS as well.
This totally makes sense even though it’s Shady.
Out of the almost 3.5 billion cell phone users Apple only has 24% of the market.
Of course they allow Google apps work on their platform to attract Android users but they don’t want Android users to have access to iOS without having to purchase an Apple device.
As I’ve said before, Google needs to go the mutually assured destruction route. Pull GMail, YouTube, Keep, Calendar, Chrome, Drive, etc., let’s see how quickly Apple adds iMessage to Android.
Highly doubtful, Apple is Googles biggest customer.
actually, if Google isn’t making money from these Apple users that don’t share their data, then they’re just a waste of bandwidth to Google, and should be cut off from GMail, YouTube, Keep, Calendar, Chrome, Drive, Maps. An iPhone with out Google, and Facebook apps, is just an overpriced paperweight
Google makes way too much money from all the ads they serve in those products to ever do that. Not to mention, with the hot water they’re already in with the US government over antitrust allegations, that would be corporate suicide.
The only service I actually “need” is YT and I’m a premium subscriber so that would be a revenue loss for them and their content creators. All the others have equivalent Apple services
This is an extreme response towards something that is, essentially, a home-grown feature. Like, Google doesn’t make certain features available for all either. Call screening is an example, ditto picture-in-picture support for the YouTube iOS app. Am I pressed about that? No, because it’s something to entice people towards their models/OS. It’s the same with iMessage. Apple had the foresight of creating a built-in messaging app for their devices that took off immensely, at least here in the U.S., and if that’s a huge draw, they’d be absolutely stupid to make it available on Android.
Stop bringing a rational response to this situation…
“Apple had the foresight of creating a built-in messaging app for their devices that took off immensely..”
Google doesn’t think further than six months on their phones and speakers. They don’t have to. It’s not wheee the money is.
Those two examples are weak compared to an end to end encrypted messaging system that syncs across multiple devices
Youtube would be the only thing that they’d miss.
oh geez, this again- imessage blah blah blah. If iFashionistas wanna keep tapping away with their fellow iFashionistas, paying for overhyped, overpriced Uyghur slave-labor made iFade iTrinkets- the minority of phone users, no one cares- no one that uses WeChat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal, etc- which is everyone.
Well, duh…that’s Apples primary motivation for a lot of what they do with iOS; “how can we lock people into iOS even more?”
Which is one of the primary reasons I refuse to buy Apple products; they just don’t play nice with others.
Was never a secret, even if Apple wanted it to be.
Obvious.
seems anti-competitive, but you won’t see many senators going after Apple for it…
Because it isn’t anti-competitive. iPhone users aren’t forced to use iMessage, and can install any one of the hundreds of messaging apps out there.
Anti-competitive would be Apple making it hard for anyone to use anything BUT iMessage. It would be pop ups and notifications letting them know iMessage is pre-installed and pushing them towards that when installing, say, WhatsApp. This is why no one is going for Apple, because it’s not their fault that they created a relatively comprehensive built-in messaging app for their users that the competition never did.
Lol that’s how business works. Remember when Google crippled Windows Phone by messing with the YouTube API and ignoring Microsoft’s plead to build the app?
Your memory is short. Microsoft blatantly broke the API terms by blocking ads from showing.
After Google wouldn’t work with them on an app.
Exploiting a competitive advantage. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. If Google had come up with a messaging platform for Android that was as feature rich as iMessage first, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Instead, they’ve tried SO many times to copy it…and are barely starting to get there.
I remember when I thought Hangouts would finally be the iMessage equivalent for Android. Alas…
Man, I convinced my whole family to switch to android because Hangouts was just as good. Everyone switched back to iPhone except for me and my wife.
Yikes! Imagine convincing people to switch a whole-ass platform just to use Google’s half-assery? I’m sure your wife would like to switch to iPhone, too
This. The Messaging Wars was Google’s to lose. They had sooooooooooo many chances to hit a home run. Blame carriers or whatever, but the fact is Apple nailed it to such a degree most of their users just consider it “text messaging.”
As if we didn’t already know that.
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iMessage was definitely a major reason I switched to an iPhone.
Serious question as I never used an iPhone: What’s so special about iMessage that it would cause you to entirely switch platforms? Outside of options to pay contacts through messaging, what is it that iMessage has that RCS through Google Messages does not?
As someone who switched to iPhone about a month ago to try it out. I have the same question. Only advantage I’ve seen so far is that videos are sent at much higher quality.
The non-compressed images and video are just part of it. Just like the send/receive time stamps. The biggest part is how easily I can send an iMessage between cellular and wifi. Sure, some texting apps do this, but it’s seamless on iMessage. I can be on a plane using wifi and send iMessages with ease. I can also easily access iMessage from my computer or iPad. Android has never had a messaging platform that worked across multiple platforms.
Hangout?
Google Hangouts always worked across multiple platforms until Google decides to screw the pooch ruining the app over time when trying to come up with all these different apps to compete or take on iMessage. For ages I used a Hangouts app on my Android device, iPhone, Windows 10 comps, my Surface Pro and even my Linux desktop.
Well the move to RCS was to make messages more like imessage, since RCS the differences are minut. But before RCS it wasn’t even close.
RCS is a big step in the right direction, but it still isn’t on the same level as iMessage. Plus, until Apple adopts it, any media sent from an Android user to an iPhone user will continue to look like garbage.
Rcs is still quite buggy nowhere near feature rich and more importantly seamless as iMessage. iMessage iMessage literally has its own app store complete with games and many more apps . Not mention end to end encryption it’s more than just high res video
BLUE BUBBLES!!!
I switched before RCS was a thing in Messages, but, for starters, media sent from one iMessage user to another will arrive without being compressed and resized to a tiny, almost unviewable image. That was the big one for me, as it sucked when my wife would send a video from her iPhone, and I couldn’t really see what was going on when viewing it on my Pixel.
iMessage is also available on Apple’s computers/tablets, which Google can’t match with their clunky Messages-on-the-web interface. If I receive a message on my iPhone, I can’t reply to it from my Pixelbook, for example. I have to get up and grab my phone from whatever room I left it in, and then reply. This won’t be a problem for me this Fall when I get a MacBook, however.
Apple has nailed the seamlessness of using it’s services on all of their devices, while Google can only dream of such integration, even after all these years.