iMessage could have come to Android years ago but Apple killed it

iMessage could take come to Android years agone but Apple killed it — hither'south why

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iMessage on Android? Information technology sounds far-fetched, just it turns out that it could take happened. But Apple killed the idea in order to keep what has become one of its most successful services restricted to Apple-made devices.

It'southward a revelation that comes from the ongoing legal dispute with Epic Games. The Fortnite creators filed a brief showing Apple tree'due south executive team made the active decision to keep iMessage off Android. Epic argues that this demonstrates Apple's willingness to utilize a "platform lock-in" to proceed its users reliant on Apple tree and its own App Store system.

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According to the brief, the determination to keep iMessage on Apple devices dates as far dorsum as 2013. That'due south according to a deposition from Boil Cue, SVP of Net Software and Services at Apple. Patently the company could take developed an Android-friendly version of iMessage that would "accept been cross-compatibility with the iOS platform so that users of both platforms would have been able to exchange messages with one another seamlessly."

But information technology turns out that idea was nixed past Craig Federighi, SVP of Software and Engineering who is in accuse of iOS, who argued that allowing a cross-platform version of iMessage would "but serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones."

In other words, keeping iMessage as an Apple tree exclusive encourages people to keep ownership iPhones. Phil Schiller, the executive in accuse of the app store, agreed with this argument, co-ordinate to testimony.

Every bit anyone who has left iOS for Android tin attest, only switching to Google'south OS isn't as easy as popping a SIM card into your new telephone. Google recommends switching off iMessage before y'all make the switch to Android, and Apple tree's own back up pages notation that non doing this may finish you from getting SMS and MMS messages on non-Apple tree phones.

Jumping to Android likewise means you lose access to all your chat histories, group chats, and everything else iMessage tin offer.

iMessage on Android would do good everyone (except Apple)

It's obvious why Apple wants to keep iMessage shut to its chest. The company makes its money based on people buying its devices, and those devices are useless if they don't have a great range of features and services.

iMessage is arguably the virtually widespread service in Apple tree's portfolio, given the popularity of communicating by text bulletin. Not only is it available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, it offers far more than than ordinary SMS has to offer. That includes the ability to ship files and photos, end-to-end encryption, integration with Apple'south FaceTime video calling and more.

Plus, Apple'southward commitment to privacy puts it alee of other pop services similar WhatsApp, which is even so plagued by the shadow of parent company Facebook. The recent backlash and controversy over WhatsApp allegedly sharing user information with Facebook is 1 nifty example of that.

Every Android user knows at least i person who has an iPhone. I'm the but Android user in my family, for a diversity of reasons, and our communication at the moment tends to happen via WhatsApp or SMS.

So if I could jump into the iMessage ecosystem without really ownership an iPhone I probably would. At the very least it would allow me, and no dubiety countless others, sever the final tie I have with Facebook.

Obviously, Apple's concerns are completely warranted. If iMessage is available on Android, so information technology may encourage user non to buy iPhones. Whether people really buy iPhones for iMessage or not is debatable, merely it does hateful there's one less thing that makes the iPhone appealing. Plus, at the very least, it would be one less obstacle that would otherwise prevent people from switching to a competitor'due south phone.

Of course this hasn't stopped work being done to create a modernized text messaging system that can work cross-platform, should Apple tree ever decide to include it on the iPhone.

RCS messaging on iPhone could be the reply

SMS text messaging has been around since the early '90s, so information technology'southward pretty poor and outdated in comparison to modernistic services. It's boring, unencrypted, and has infamously bad security that exposes it to corruption and attacks.

But it'due south universal. No matter whether your phone runs iOS, Android, KaiOS, or another operating system, SMS is there, letting you contact anyone else with a cell telephone number. Fortunately, it's non like tech companies have been sitting effectually letting SMS become stale, and take actively been working on an upgraded version — and so to speak.

Rich advice services, or RCS, has been in the works since 2007. Recently it'south also had a lot of support from Google, who rolled out the protocol to all Android phones as role of the Android Letters app at the end of 2019.

RCS is, essentially, SMS ii.0: a text messaging service that offers features that yous would commonly have to go to a more than advanced messaging service for. Grouping chats, read receipts, stronger media sharing capabilities, so on.

It's a lot like iMessage, really, which may explicate why Apple has never bothered to implement RCS on iPhones. It was built as a cross-platform system, and would allow people to have a more modernized text messaging arrangement regardless of what kind of phone they take. And without resorting to a private, tertiary-political party service to do information technology.

Obviously, it would non be iMessage, and all the obstacles users would have to confront when leaving the Apple ecosystem would withal be at that place. All your group chats and conversations wouldn't be able to follow yous to Android, and presumably non-Apple users would still be marked by the infamous dark-green chat bubble.

iMessage on Android is never going to happen, that's very clear. But RCS could be a perfectly suitable alternative for people who need to communicate across platforms.

Because no matter how pop iPhones are, in that location are ever going to be Android users. Since those two groups of people can't only ignore each other, the least Apple could do is help to streamline the procedure.

Even if that means adding bonus features to iMessage to finish a potential user exodus.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide'southward Automotive Editor, which means he can usually be found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the tabular array. He's commonly found trying to squeeze some other giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very big cups of coffee, or complaining that Ikea won't allow him purchase the stuff he really needs online.