Apple admits that iMessage for Android was killed to keep its walled garden | Hacker News Reader

Apple admits that iMessage for Android was killed to keep its walled garden

androidpolice.com

But all you have to do is charge a yearly fee... Apple keeps talking about moving to services revenue but can't even tackle the low hanging fruit. Heck, bundle it with iCloud and make it something ridiculous like $20/month and you'll get the best of both worlds.

It's not a long-term problem because they're going to have to add support for RCS at some point, meaning Android users will have a similar experience to iMessage with their iOS friends.

Apple wasn't going to port iMessage to Android because there isn't any benefit. I can't charge people to use a messaging app, they're free.

I love iMessage, it's one of the reasons I stay on the Apple platform, but in a world where almost all my friends use some other app anyway, it doesn't really matter. Like I still have to have Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Signal installed in order to talk to everyone. iMessage is mostly great for less technical family members because they "get it out of the box".

>It's not a long-term problem because they're going to have to add support for RCS at some point, meaning Android users will have a similar experience to iMessage with their iOS friends.

Except it won't be encrypted. And the social stigma, as stupid as it is, of "green chat" or whatever teenagers are calling it, isn't going away.

To summarize, Apple acting anti-competitively (lock users to iPhones by treating Android users as second class citizens) is okay because:

1) they might fix it at some indeterminate point (do you have a source for how this will work? or some evidence pointing this way?)

2) they don't benefit by porting (uh, why is Apple Music on Android then? and yes, this is why you act anti-competitively)

3) there are other chat apps (but literally every other chat app you mention is cross-platform)

This is a very weak reply to the allegations alleged in the article.

They’ve launched products for other platforms with limited success, except for the big one being iTunes for Windows which was a huge success.

There is no reason in the end to support more platforms because problems with other platforms end up being blamed on the service. I think this is also something they strictly want to avoid.

If there are integration issues with X networks, Y devices and Z versions of android. Users will complain to Apple. From this perspective I think it makes sense.

You're not wrong, but, the article is about high-level Apple employees discussing that they're doing it to limit switching to Android, not because they're worried about supporting different Android versions.

I don’t understand the point this article is trying to make.

Yes, Apple execs thought that iMessage exclusivity would help them. Perhaps it did a little but the app still connects seamlessly to android users via sms. I never think when contacting someone, “oh wait, do they have an iPhone?”

As for imessage-specific features (iMessage App Store, cash, imessage for businesses etc): they have pretty limited use. And in fact Apple’s choice inhibits some of them (like iChat to your business) which seems like an own goal.

More importantly, Whatsapp has crushed most of the messaging apps, imessage included. Apple doesn’t seem to care or try to block it.

So what offense, exactly has been committed?

iMessage intentionally attaches social inclusion to ability to buy premium hardware. I think that's wrong.

Yep. My friends all talk about “green people”. That is friends who are so poor they can’t afford iPhones so their texts show up as green instead of blue.

> Perhaps it did a little but the app still connects seamlessly to android users via sms.

And meanwhile, when I'm (with an Android device) texting my friend (with an iPhone), I end up getting spammed with 'Laughed at "$MESSAGE"' and 'Loved "$MESSAGE"' because apparently reactions to texts come across as texts themselves.

(I don't know if this is an iMessage thing specifically, though, or even something that a sufficiently-smart Android SMS app couldn't overcome; maybe there are Android SMS apps that can parse these and show them as reactions to the relevant messages. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

There are similar limits on photos/video. MMS photos are resolution capped at ~1MP, and videos have are compressed to be barely legible.

iMessage transfers photos/video at their native resolution.

Which means that if three iPhone users send photos in a group chat, everything's great. Add one Android user and all four are degraded to MMS quality levels.

I think my next phone will be by Apple, specifically so I can enjoy the seamless image/video sharing the rest of my family has. Probably a few generations back - I don't need the fancy cameras and screens.

> Whatsapp has crushed most of the messaging apps, imessage included.

Not in US. And specially not within teens in US. ( And you can exclude Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and possibly Australia as well. Edit: And of course China. )

To this day I still dont understand how anyone use iMessages on a day to day basis. It is possibly the worst form of instant messaging I have had for years. Even worst than ICQ.

I think Apple software is popular not because it's own value and features, but because:

1. It's free

2. It's preinstalled

3. It's well integrated

I don't think I'd use Mail, iMessage, Safari or Preview if it was not installed by default and set up so it is a default app. Feature-wise I'd say Apple software it good enough not to bother installing anything else and that's it.

What’s not to like about iMessage?

Message Sending and Receiving not reliable and long delay.

Group Message often not delivered.

Group members often get drop out of Group messages for no reason. They thought no one was talking when that is not the case.

Their message to group will then appear to each individual member.

To solve this problem we have to restart a new group.

iMessage for years dont have searching. ( It is a bit like App Store where they just didn't bother to improve its searching )

And this isn't old. As recent as 2018 that was still the case. 7 years after its first introduction. We tried it as group every year and every year we felt disappointed.

WhatsApp on the other hand has been near perfect. ( Apart from being part of Facebook )

Your group all has iPhones and this happens ?

Yes. After all Group messages wouldn't even work in SMS / non-iMessages scenario at all.

It works both ways though; in countries where iPhone market share is not extremely high, nobody uses the exclusive features of iMessage such as group chats and it’s just ‘automatic free sms with some extras’.

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