Google needs Apple to ditch iMessage in favor of Wealthy Communication Providers, or RCS for brief. RCS is already out there on Android and you may entry it through Google’s Messages app. Just a few different third-party messaging apps additionally assist RCS.
However why does Google need Apple to surrender on its messaging protocol? Learn on to seek out out.
Google’s Android Head Criticizes Apple for Utilizing iMessage
Google will not be pleased with Apple for utilizing iMessage, the corporate’s in-house instantaneous messaging service. The revelations got here in a tweet from senior vp of platforms and ecosystems, Hiroshi Lockheimer. He took a jab at Apple for “utilizing peer strain and bullying as a technique to promote merchandise.”
Lockheimer was responding to a report by The Wall Road Journal on US teenagers ostracizing their friends for switching to Android telephones. This emanates from iMessage labeling messages from non-iPhones as inexperienced as an alternative of the native blue bubbles.
The report reveals how, as a result of exclusivity, it is arduous to maneuver away from Apple’s ecosystem—the so-called walled backyard.
In his response, Lockheimer confirmed what we might identified all alongside. There is not any technical barrier stopping Apple from releasing iMessage on Android or at the least supporting communication between iMessage and Android customers. For the uninitiated, a courtroom battle between Apple and Fortnite-maker Epic Video games revealed the true causes.
This courtroom case revealed inside emails courting again to 2013. In them, Apple’s govt Craig Federighi mentioned launching iMessage on Android would “take away an impediment to iPhone households giving their children Android telephones.” In one other e mail three years later, then-marketing chief Phil Schiller reiterated this sentiment. He wrote that doing so “will damage us greater than assist us.”
Whereas iMessage would not make Apple any cash straight, it helps guarantee customers keep loyal to its ecosystem, and that interprets to income.
Google’s official Android account additionally tweeted in assist of Lockheimer, including {that a} resolution exists.
After all, it is clear Apple advantages from such exclusivity, and that’s you may’t use iMessage on Android, as revealed by courtroom paperwork.
Why Does Google Need Apple to Ditch iMessage?
Lockheimer argues that one motive Apple helps SMS/MMS is that cellphone number-based messaging all the time works. With these older protocols, you do not have to fret whether or not somebody is utilizing a particular app. This is useful, particularly in a world the place there are various instantaneous messaging apps, every with its fan base.
Google’s govt would not simply need Apple to assist RCS for the sake of it. He argues that it is an evolution of SMS/MMS requirements already out there on iMessage. Adopting RCS would guarantee seamless communication between Android and iMessage.
Moreover, supporting RCS will allow iOS and Android customers to share different options offered by the brand new messaging protocol.
With out RCS assist, messages despatched between iPhones to Android telephones will proceed to make use of the older SMS/MMS requirements. Which means cross-platform messages miss out on options of different trendy protocols.
Lockheimer provides that “Apple is holding again the business and holding again the person expertise for not solely Android customers but in addition their very own clients.”
What Is RCS?
RCS is a messaging protocol developed by a bunch of cell business gamers to switch the favored however outdated and outdated SMS and MMS protocols. RCS affords options already out there on iMessage, like learn receipts, typing indicators, and sending through mobile information or Wi-Fi.
Google’s historical past with messaging hasn’t been spectacular, however the firm has been on the forefront of spreading the RCS gospel. And fortuitously for them, three main US carriers (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Cell) are boarding the prepare.
RCS is accessible globally, though not each Android person can entry the function as a result of totally different obstacles to entry. This is the right way to verify in case your Android cellphone has RCS assist.
What Occurs Subsequent?
On the time of writing, Apple is but to situation a touch upon Google’s criticism, at the least not publicly. However Google is able to assist the tech large guarantee seamless communication between Android gadgets and iPhones by supporting RCS messaging, in response to Google’s govt.
Apple is reluctant to make such a transfer for apparent causes. However, in the event that they ever will, the corporate will seemingly discover methods to perpetuate exclusivity. Therefore, they proceed to entice new customers to its ecosystem and make it arduous for current ones to look elsewhere. As has been prior to now, Apple is hard to crack with regards to its “walled backyard.”
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