The long fight to make Apple’s iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union’s Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that “gatekeepers” not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others.
But nobody in Europe uses iMessage.
I presume apple users do occasionally…
I guess this is a way for google to force apple to open the protocol since they can’t just open it in the EU, so it affects the US too. But the EU don’t have to listen to google… if imessage is such a minor player they may just leave it alone.
We use it when WhatsApp has server problems every once in a while or for a round of GamePigeon.
Ironically, in Europe you’d be “missing out” on most group conversations if you’d insist on using iMessage, as most of your buddies probably have an Android phone with WhatsApp installed.
Not really.
For example, in Sweden, probably half as high of a percentage of people have iPhones as the US and yet everyone uses Facebook messenger and whatsapp, at least when I studied there 5 years ago.
The EU won’t leave Apple alone, that’s the whole purpose of the Digital Markets Act (prevent “gatekeepers” from excluding other players).
The irony here is that Google is throwing stones when they have huge glass roofs. This law will certainly bite them back elsewhere, hopefully. We need strong laws to curb these modern day robber barons.
I never understood why WhatsApp is so popular. I used it (a long time ago) and just don’t see it.
It’s the network effect. Everyone else uses it - so it is easier to just use it than to not use it.
Because it gave the possibility of free text and calling over the internet , that was a big deal for many developing countries and it is very simple to use. Like I heard some Apple fanboys said that iMessage comes already installed with the phone? And on my mind I am like : How hard is to download an app and just put your phone number you are up and running in less than 2 minutes.
You want to tell Europe is a developing country? 😂 /s
Lol no , It just that Europeans are not lazy as some Americans who can’t even take 2 minutes to install an app.
You just explained why Europeans have a lot more motivation to install it than Americans do, yet you immediately jump to laziness as an explanation for why Americans aren’t as eager to adopt an app they have little reason to care about.
Your attempt to criticize Americans is very…what’s the word…oh yeah, lazy.
Who did say that apple fanboys are only Americans? 🌚
Damn, -3 and I didn’t even forget “/s”, what have I done wrong xD
No other country offered unlimited texting back in the day.
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iMessage technically isn’t SMS. It just supports it as an additional protocol. On Android, Facebook Messenger
and Signalbehaves similarly (because android lets apps become the default SMS handler).Just FYI Signal no longer supports SMS. They decided it “leads to confusion” and a partially secure app is not good enough. Led me to stop donating to them.
No. But we have the same reliance now on WhatsApp as the US does with iMessage.
I’d love to see RCS become the norm so I can ditch WhatsApp.
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Ted Lasso? That TV series created by check notes Apple?
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It’s WhatsApp through and through.