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  • Apple would only write Android apps that help facilitate the move to iPhone. They make profits on hardware, not software.

  • i want to know what apple thinks it can bring to android? maps? or maybe that new wireless charging technology they’re pioneering.

  • It’s too make an app to transfer your current Android content into an iPhone when making a horrible switch to them

  • I would definitely leverage some of Apple’s offerings on Android right alongside Microsoft’s. pretty sweet actually.

  • Only thing I wanted was photo stream as the rest of my family went the Apple route, but then I learned if you start a Photostream on iOS every picture and video taken or uploaded by any of the members of the stream gets stored locally on your phone, not the cloud. My sisters photostream of her kids was using over 4GB of storage, on her 16GB iPhone she had to upgrade to a new phone to store more photos. Thats the last thing I want

    SO Apple can keep that crap I’ll stick with Google Photos.

    iMessage might be nice as Hangouts still can’t handle HQ photos, or Group MMS

  • This is unrelated, but when are we gonna see Hangouts 4.0 on Android? I used it on an iPhone and its much better then our current version.

  • iMessage was introduced by Apple as a way to get around the carriers charging for SMS. iMessage goes through Apple’s servers using data, bypassing the carriers SMS system. With most if not all cell plans now including unlimited texting, the rationale for iMessage is gone.

    • You can send much larger files through iMessage (which is stock and doesn’t require people to agree to use any 3rd party apps) than you can through SMS. I enjoy being able to send uncompressed pictures, animated gifs, and even video files through my stock “texting” app using my carrier phone number. Group messaging works well too and some Android/OEM stock messaging apps still have trouble with MMS and/or group messaging. I think iMeesage handles all of these particularly well. By far the biggest advantage, IMO, is that it’s baked in at the OS level. Seamless syncing across all of your devices IF you happen to also use an iPad and/or Mac. I know there are various 3rd party Android solutions available to provide this functionality, but in my experience none of them do it as well as iMessage. Each 3rd party app has its limitations whether it poor syncing across devices or hitting the file size limits because they are subject to carrier imposed SMS soze limits. All that said, many people here will argue that iMessage is a complete non-starter because they would never use an iPhone. I still believe you have to actual use and experience iMessage to be able to appreciate it for what it is. It’s certainly not irrelevant or obsolete just because most US carriers offer unlimited SMS now.

  • I would actually use iMessage if they brought that over. It pains me to say but Hangouts is just a total turd.

    • I probably would try it too. I’ve been a big fan of Google, but becoming so tired of Google’s crappy apps, that lack logic, consistency throughout, don’t follow their own design guidelines, and take forever to develop. Makes me wonder if anyone actually works at Google, rather than goofing off.

      1 man 3rd party devs create better apps than anything Google creates.

      • Dude imagine if Chris Lacy or Joaquim Verges could make a Google Music client ahhhhhhh.

    • What confuses me here not just about your comment but including all the ones above, why is it a total turd? I use it everyday at work with people on Android and Apple without any issues either on our phones or on our PC’s, it just works. I guess I see the point of Apple folks not wanting to install another messaging app but for everyone I know, it’s the standard and it just works seamlessly between phones and computers to continue your conversation.

      • The UI is garbage on the android app, and the various PC programs (browser extension, and app). It’s not logically thought out or user friendly. In fact, the app shouldn’t even be it’s own standalone app. It should just be a plugin that add functions to the stock dialer. Then you’d have one contact list, and it would be much easier to start sms, hangout, or call someone.

        • And again, I lack to see your argument here that it’s garbage. The app works, I use it for chatting and texting on my Moto X, and on a non cellular tablet I can even make free calls with it, and it works off my contacts from gmail. I don’t like the chrome extension that they tried to push on people but working in gmail, it’s a seamless experience between my phone and computer. I think you guys are being too picky. If my wife can use it, anyone can figure it out.

          • using the same logic; if a 1 man 3rd party dev can make a nice app w/ well thought out UI, and provide quality updates in a reasonable amount of time, then a team at Google should be able to. I wonder when we’ll get hangouts 4.0… and I really doubt it will be much better then what we have.

            I use the app all the time too, and am used to it. But it could be a lot better. I’m just annoyed that iOS hangouts app gets updates and features long before android does. We waited over a year just to get GV integration, that iOS had all that time.

          • I often figure there is one person at the top of the management chain that has a vision/laser focus on one thing and ends up making the decision to do what they want instead of listening to what the group thinks is important. Look at Jeff and his wonderful Amazon Fire Phone. What features does iOS have that we don’t? Remind me again what we lacked with the google voice integration, I feel like it’s been so long that I have even used google voice instead of hangouts.

          • iOS had google voice integration for about a year before android, with true VOIP that used data rather than minutes. Which was huge deal with GV users.

            Just like how they’ve had a number of redesigned apps first.

            No reason to beat a dead horse. You’re happy with what google puts out, I’m not. This series of posts doesn’t really reflect me. I’m usually a big fan of Google, I just think they could be a lot better.

    • I would not use iMessage if it was brought over, and I never use Hangouts anyway.

      • So why the hell are you even responding? You clearly have nothing to add to this conversation.

  • It’s actually a great way for them to make some money from software. Android users would easily pay $2-3 for Apple’s superior messaging and video chatting apps.

  • When iOS 9 releases in the fall, Apple is also releasing the “Move to iOS” app. Developers are being hired probably to create the Android client for the app which will .do for the iPhone what Samsung Smart Switch Mobile or LG BackUp does for those OEMs respective devices. If Apple is going to succeed in moving ALL of your content to your new iPhone, bluetooth probably wouldn’t suffice, so this app will likely need a client application (hence hiring developers to build it) to run on the Android device that is transferring its contents.

    iMessage and FaceTime are staples of iOS. There’s no reason (or more importantly profit) for Apple to offer it on competing platforms. Apple music is an exception because of the revenue it will generate.

    • Pretty much this. I don’t see any scenario where iMessage or FaceTime come to Android. It’s one of the things that is 100% Apple and they would rather have people buy iPhones to use these features than to give them away for Android.

    • You mean like how Google stubbornly sticks with material design for the iOS versions of their apps and refuses to adhere to iOS 7 design guidelines?

      • Google doesn’t even stick to material design guidelines for their OWN applications. See Hangouts.

        • Wait…what? Google doesn’t use their own design guidelines for apps on their own platform, yet uses it on another platform which is not as appropriate?

          Weird is all I can say…

  • please just give us imessage, im tired of group messages making no sense because texts take 3 minutes more than imessages

  • PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let it be iMessage! I would ditch my iPhone so fast if I could only get iMessage on Android. That and Tweetbot are really the only things holding me to iPhone. Hell I’d even be willing to pay to access to iMessage on Android. But alas, I doubt it will be anything people might actually want. I know a lot of people here have no experience with iMessage and don’t see what the hype is about, but trust me, you’d have to actually use it to understand.

    • I used an iPhone for a few weeks and know what you mean about iMessage. I might go back in a few months if a decent 4.7 to 5 inch Android phone doesn’t release.

      • Yup, I’m eligible for upgrade in a week but likely holding out for the 6S+ or a new Nexus 6. Every time I weigh the pros and cons, the only real pro for the Android side in my use case is the ability to root and adblock. Everything else that I do can be done just as well on iOS, if not better.

        Amazingly, the BIGGEST factor for me is that theres no Android Auto audiobook player that lets me use my own files. Audiobook.com’s app with support dropped on Sunday but you MUST buy from them. With CarPlay, I plug the phone in and theres an Audiobooks button right on the home screen. I think Google really dropped the ball by either A) not having their own app or B) not putting in some rudimentary support for remembering where you were in a track to Google Play Music. If I want to listen to something else in GPM, it immediately forgets the place I was in the previous track, meaning if I want to use it for an audiobook, I have to either remember where I was myself or I can’t listen to anything else until that book is done.

        I realize that I may not be the most common use case, but including audiobook support in GPM seems almost trivial.

        • You obviously do not understand Android if the only advantage for you is root and adblock.

          • I understand Android perfectly well, thank you. I am a dev, I’ve been buying Nexus devices since the Nexus S, I’ve built my own kernels. I’m not sure how good your reading comprehension is, but I said ‘for my usage’. I know theres lots of things Android can do, but as I’ve aged, I’ve cared much less about doing them. As the top OEMs are ditching removable batteries and some *cough*Samsung*cough* are ditching SD cards, I see less and less of a reason to deal with the update roller coaster and constant disappointment in the updates release. Sure, Apple has some issues here and there, but I’ve had more updates than I can count that made my phones worse, rather than better. I’m just ready to get off that merry go round.

        • I read an article recently where they saying a similar adblocking tech is coming to Safari for iOS

    • Based on your logic, what reason would there be to bring iMessage to Android, if it just means more “defectors”?

      iMessage brings Apple no revenue on its own, yet costs Apple money in the form of server costs. Unless you are paying it upfront with the purchase of an Apple device, it’s not in Apple’s business model to offer something for free.

      • Agreed – there’s absolutely no reason for Apple to allow iMessage on other platforms. Also with it being for iOS and OS X only, they seemingly have total control from “cradle to grave” so to speak. Makes it easy for them to maintain (control). Who knows, if they connected it to Android the quality of service might not be nearly so nice – and that would kill potential hardware sales which is their bread and butter.

  • It won’t be iMessage, Facetime, Apple Maps, or any other app that generates no revenue. My guess is it will be an app for their upcoming TV service or some other subscription service.

    • Or a ‘Move to iOS’ app that finds all the apps you have, your account info and installs or finds equivalents of to migrate you to an iPhone

      • Yeah I can see that as a possibility. Which underscores my point being whatever this project turns out to be, it will ultimately add more profits. Apple is not going to develop android apps that won’t generate revenue, so don’t expect android versions of iMessage, Facetime, Apple Maps, etc.

  • I wouldn’t mind Safari and Facetime. Other than that I’m not missing anything.

  • Could you work on Magnification Gestures.?Googles dirty diapers rendition makes my phone lag something nasty like. I bet Crapertino can fix it.

  • iMessage would be a great addition to Android. I think it is to late now, but Apple should have made an iTunes for Android years back.

  • My best guess would be something involving their rumored internet TV service. That would also bring them revenue outside of device sales.

    A second, less likely possibility is something along the lines of Continuity got Android do that people with Macs and iPads can still have those features if they own an Android phone. But I don’t see this as very likely.

  • Hmm, could Apple Watch be coming to Android? The iPod didn’t really take off until Apple made it available to Windows users and the Android community would represent a huge and lucrative market for said accessory.

    • Compared to Android Wear, who and why would an Android user want an Apple Watch?

      • Aesthetics, for one.

        I own a pebble watch, ad while the notifications but works great, there’s no denying that it looks like a cheap Casio watch. And to be honest, I don’t think any of the other android wear watches look much better either.

        The biggest challenge to wearables, imo, is convincing people to wear them and be willing to be seen outside wearing them. Otherwise, the best features are meaningless if nobody uses your product.

        And Apple gets design. Plus they are pretty much the only company who is actually bothering to advertise their wearables and push for its adoption.

        So if there is any company who stands a chance of standing out in the wearables market, it’s Apple.

        • Eh…. Color me crazy but the Apple Watch just looks like a costlier Pebble with a button on the side IMO.

          Wearables is always going to be a niche market. It’s not meant to become mainstream or overtake traditional watches. Not to mention the functionality isn’t really there for the Apple Watch compared to Android Wear (which isn’t there yet, but is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition).

          Moto 360, LG Urbane, and the LG R watch are some pretty good looking devices by the way.

          Apple may get design in your opinion, but they certainly don’t get price. Hard to takeover the market when the watch costs as much as the phone needed to make it work.

          • As I mentioned, the main issue with wearables isn’t the functionality, it’s getting people to wear them. The Android Wear devices you mentioned may look fine to you, and you can wax lyrical about how their software is superior to that of the Apple Watch, but their low sales figures (even rumoured to be lower than the Apple Watch despite the latter’s smaller customer base) suggests that these products are having a hard time resonating with consumers.

            It’s ironic that you mention Apple not getting price when they were recently reported to have made as much as 92% of the smartphone industry’s profits, despite the high selling prices of their iPhones. This shows that there is high demand for their products, and more importantly, people are willing to pay a premium for an Apple product.

            Something Android OEMs are evidently having a very hard time replicating. And as Apple has shown countless times, they have no qualms about sacrificing market share to preserve their margins, a move which has actually allowed them to become one of, if not the most valuable company in the world.

            This whole market share vs usage share paradigm is why so many people were off the mark when they predicted the doom of Apple. Apple doesn’t need to “take over” the market the way Android has done with 80% market share, nor is Apple lagging just because it has the minority market share. Apple just needs to win over the more lucrative segment of the market who has no qualms about paying handsomely for nice things.

            Imagine this scenario – in the smartwatch market, the 10% with more disposable income decide to buy Apple Watches. The rest are engaged in a desperate race to the bottom with the prices (and consequently, profit margins) of wearables. Just like what we are seeing with PCs, smartphones and tablets today.

            Ask any OEM today whether they would prefer Apple’s profits or Samsung’s market share in smartphones. If Apple can get, say, 10% of market share in smartwatches but more than 90% of the profits, and developers and 3rd party accessory makers race to support Apple Watch first, can you really say with a straight face that Apple is losing the wearables race?

          • You’ve basically just described the automotive market. Luxury makes generate a huge portion of the profit with far less sales. It’d why GM is investing billions in Cadillac. So apple acts as the luxury manufacturer in the phones market and they’re perfectly happy with that.

        • I can’t imagine many people objectively choosing the *look* of the iWatch over the Moto 360.

          • Theres nothing to really NOT like about the 360. Its merely a circle with a strap. Its as plain ‘watch’ as you can get. Some people don’t like the ‘dive watch’ style of the G Watch R or the cleats on the Urbane, but they still look like regular watches.

      • Majority of people I know have an iPhone and hence have Facetime baked in. They do not have hangouts or care to be bothered with something else.

        • So why should an Android user bother with Facetime if no Apple user wants to bother with hangouts?

          • Problem is most Android users (those that don’t frequent these sites) don’t have any idea what Hangouts is. How are you going to get Apple users to bother with a program that Android users don’t even use. Honestly the issue goes back to Google as they do a TERRIBLE job of marketing their own apps.

        • I suppose this makes sense. I would just tell them to get Hangouts if they want to video chat.

      • Hangouts video chat is garbage. Every time I’ve used it, image quality is pretty bad no matter how fast your connection is and lags like crazy.

        • As an iPhone user, I don’t see what the big deal is about FaceTime either, aside from its integration with iOS. Thanks to some stupid patent issue, Apple has to use a huge workaround for their FaceTime protocol and it impacts performance greatly.

          Why wouldn’t I use a more cross-platform app like Skype?

        • as Android/iOS user, I agree Hangout video chat is garbage whether I use it on an Android device or an iOS device. Completely different experience on FaceTime. In saying that, Hangouts on iOS is much BETTER than Hangouts on Android.

    • Actually, it’s not the SW. In fact, Samsung’s camera SW is far better. What apple has the major advantage in is a native OS vs a Virtual Machine. The system response cannot be matched Natve vs VM. That’s why everyone thinks iPhones take better pics. Compare any iDevice to the note 4’s cam and they pale in comparison.

      • No… just no! Just take a step back and realize that Apple has good hardware and software for their camera. It’s ok that Samsung is #2, really, it is.

        • When did I ever mention Apple didnt? However, every benchmark and test wholeheartedly refutes your claim. So does my anecdotal real world experience. System response is better (ie tapping multiple pics) on Apple. but everything else is better on the Note 4.

  • The times I do switch to iPhone, the only Apple app I use is their messaging app. Not sure what else they could put out that would interest me.

    • It would have been nice if FaceTime was really ‘open’ the way they said it would be. Its a shame they got sued and weren’t able to open it up properly.

  • I actually wouldn’t mind an iMessage app. I’ve given up on hangouts and admit iMessage is a better product. It’s only drawback is not being cross platform

  • Only FaceTime and iMessage since Google doesn’t care to create an Android equivalent.

    • iMessage and all of SMS is obsolete anyways. RCS is supposed to be replacing all of that.

      • Pretty much everyone I know still communicates through iMessage/SMS. What is RCS?

        • Rich Communication Services. Think like what T-Mobile has done with their Advanced Messaging program.

      • I wouldn’t count on that becoming a standard stateside. It’s barely made a mark internationally in comparison to SMS.

        For which I’m still an avid user of.

        • I think many of us have moved on to OTT services like Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Chat Heads since they offer a whole lot more. SMS is pretty limited in functionality compared to those.

          • That’s not as big of a number as you believe. I’m pretty sure DL did a poll once that showed OTT wasn’t ahead of SMS in terms of users.

      • If something is obsolete, no one is using it. But pretty much everyone with a smartphone uses SMS/iMessage/Hangouts…

          • Apple didn’t want to pay royalties to Adobe.

            That is why Apple was wanting to kill all flash support.

      • According to who? SMS is still the way to communicate, and that’s the way 99% of people with a smartphone communicate. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

        • Just because SMS is the primary way to communicate, doesn’t make it the best. Group texting is a mess, sending multimedia is unreliable, and you have the 160 character limit.

      • Um. No. No it doesn’t.

        And furthermore good luck trying to get people to use Hangouts.

          • I use hangouts every day. I don’t understand what the problem with it is. My brother and my can text and we can also send meme’s/gif’s to each other, making each other laugh in meetings, etc. and getting weird looks from people. What more does it need to do?

          • His point wasn’t to say that nobody uses Hangouts (obviously you and your brother are two people). His point was that Hangouts is a foreign concept to the bulk of the market. Who is the bulk of the market? Anybody who doesn’t read tech blogs, and that’s a lot of anybodys. iMessage is baked directly into iOS. It’s stock, right out of the box. And who uses default apps right out of the box? The bulk of the market. Whatever messaging app the device comes with is the one they will use. That’s why iMessage rules.

            Also, Hangouts is full of jank.

          • I understand the first part of your post, that’s not what I was referring to. I personally see NOTHING wrong with Hangouts. It doesn’t lag for me, it doesn’t break, it sends images, etc. just fine. I can archive/mute/delete just as well…so what’s broken or ‘janked’?

            I use Textra for SMS/MMS and Hangouts works no worse than Textra. I only use Hangouts for conversations with two people (due to GIF support lol).

          • OK, I understand then. In my experience, Hangouts hasn’t exactly been smooth.

          • If you store a lot of texts/have a lot of texts in one string (or both), that’s when it gets laggy and slow…since it does not really store anything locally. Android could solve this problem and store locally, but then everyone would cry about running out of memory too quickly (a’la a large number of iPhone users).

          • Perhaps it’s because I don’t use it for SMS (at all) that I don’t see the issues? I like it cause my brother and I can chat from our work PC’s and then carry on the convo on our phones in the evening, etc. But that makes sense, nothing is stored on our phones and it’s just loaded as needed by the app.

            Interesting.

          • Precisely. Google needs to implement local storage (but keep the sync). That will rid Hangouts of most of it’s gremlins.

          • Only problem (obviously) is the not everyone uses iMessage. In fact, only iPhone users (a minority in the mobile OS market) can. If Apple expands iMessage to other platforms then maybe iMessage will rule. But for now, nope.

          • Wait… Did you just call Apple a minority in the mobile OS market?

            You do know it’s pretty much a duopoly (Android & Apple) outside of China right?

          • I guess I meant to define “rule” as the messaging platform that is used by just about everybody with an Apple product. I realize that’s a generalization, but I feel confident that if you’re on iOS, you use iMessage primarily. It also rules in functionality: switching back and forth from SMS, MMS and data, as well as general performance (bugless and, to use a Tim term, jankless).

          • I don’t use Hangouts because I hate people. iMessage isn’t going to change that.

          • A big problem with Hangouts gaining traction is the lack of education about it. A lot of people don’t realize it’s the same chat that they’re using in Gmail. A friend of mine refused to download it because she didn’t want anything new, but after learning that it was the same as Gmail chatting, she installed it on her iPhone.

          • What a great comment, it’s totally true. I have buddies who I talk with every day on “G-chat,” but up until they were forced to use Hangouts, they didn’t want anything to do with a version other than the old school Gmail chat. I always tried to get them to switch, but they held strong. It’s all they knew.

          • While Hangouts is a terrible app, it seems to run pretty smoothly. I use Messenger and love it, but the latest update has made that thing jank all over the place. I keep waiting for Google to fix it but I’m not holding my breath. The comments on the Play Store are full of people complaining about the performance of Messenger since the latest update.

          • I’m on a Note 3, so it could just be old tech, but Hangouts is painfully slow on it, while Messenger does pretty well, but with occasionally sluggishness. I carry an iPhone 6+ for work (I know, I’m a sinner), and iMessage has never skipped a beat for me. I love Hangouts, just think it needs a major overhaul on Android.

          • “Whatever messaging app the device comes with is the one they will use. That’s why iMessage rules.”

            so wait. you’re saying imessage “rules” because apple users have no other choice? thats prob the dumbest thing ive heard.

          • yeah didnt say i had a passion for the idiotic things you say. but i cant say im surprised you were wrong again. but if you keep replying i might be able to start a collection.

          • Nothing much. Just finishing up some things at work and then going to play golf. Sunny day today, low 80s, perfect weather. You?

          • oh makin the rounds. sorry i didnt reply sooner…but…you know. anyway, golf sounds….like golf. we finally got out of the 90’s here so thats good.

        • Exactly. Google doesn’t give two Craps, if apple did imessage everyone would use it and it’s arguably a better or more polished product than hangouts. I’d still prefer hangouts but Whateves

        • Color me lucky, I have plenty of friends (mostly iPhone users) that use hangouts. Especially during the day when at work. Boo yah!

          • I can’t get any friends with iOS to use hangouts, or even sign up for a gmail account.

            Sucks how brain-washed iOS users are to thinking that anything Google is evil.

        • iMessage maybe but what does facetime do that hangouts doesnt?

          I use hangouts a lot and its great for having like 8 different people in a chat too.

      • As others have said, it doesn’t. I am jelly that my wife can text people from her phone or her tablet NATIVELY with no 3rd party programs (such as I use, mysms)…needs to be part of hangouts; as well as ditching that STUPID ASS EMOTICON BUTTON INSTEAD OF THE ENTER BUTTON (or at least let us set enter to default, Google).

      • I wish I could agree with you, but it just isn’t. Hangouts started out promising but then it just became a big ol’ mess with Voice integration and it’s generally clunky design. Releasing 4.0 on iOS MONTHS before it sees the light of day on Android was the final straw.

    • Yeah, way more people I know use iMessage than Hangouts. It would be nice if they took that across the platform.

    • I really couldn’t care less about those apps, but I do wish that they would release a full iTunes only so that I could watch some iTunes only “Digital Video Edition” movies that have come with some Blu-Rays that I have bought on my Android tablet.

      • Eh. I’d say google offers a much better experience with way better sales and pricing through their apps.

    • I would really like iMessage to be on Android. I’m really tired of 100 different messaging platforms, and nobody will take the lead. BUT, seeing that iMessage isn’t even available on Apple’s iCloud services on the web, I find it hard to believe they’d release it on Android first.

    • I dont know ANYONE who uses hangouts and it stinks anyway. I’m all for facetime-imessage to be honest.
      it just works for everyone, even stupid lazy people.

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