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Comment by rsuelzer | Hacker News Reader

It is hard to dominate the messaging space when Apple does not offer messaging service to android users.

Do they need to dominate the space, or does Apple just need to dominate their own space? I would suggest that the high usage of iMessage is also a driver for new customers to come on board with iOS and remain there.

This right here. I think a lot of people don’t consider jumping ship at all, primarily because of iMessage (no source, just personal experience).

That’s mostly a US thing. Where apple doesn’t have big enough market share, it doesn’t work and people use alternative chat programs (messenger, whatsapp, telegram)

True! Having moved from Denmark to the US makes this very apparent. In DK everyone uses Facebook Messenger.

Yeah, I know tons of people who won't even consider anything other than iPhone, and their first response is "then I won't have iMessage!"

I have literally never heard anyone say that. IMessage is a nice thing to have, but other than the blue bubbles has almost zero effect on communications. SMS text messages work fine and are free. Same for WhatsApp and FB Messenger.

I saw someone once say that if they don't have a blue bubble, they're not worth talking to.

That does sound like an arrogant arsehole if serious, though that’s the kind of things one would say in jest around here. Not sure how prevalent that is, if sincere. Even in the UK, where Apple has a near-50% market share AFAIK, it means not communicating with half the population, which sounds impractical.

I’ve heard it to, it’s mostly about seeing the delivery receipt. I think that’s why apple refuses to implement RCS.

> other than the blue bubbles has almost zero effect on communications. SMS text messages work fine and are free. Same for WhatsApp and FB Messenger.

That is simply, objectively, untrue.

There are so many falsities with your statement I don't know where to begin.

Lets start with money transfer. I often use applepay right in iMessage to split bills between parties right at the table. I iMessage them the bill and their portion, and right there through iMessage they reimburse me through apple-pay, right to my bank.

During the last major Hurricane in FL, iMessages would send while SMS and all TEXTING would not. Cellular services were down. Texting was down, but iMessage worked just fine with a WiFi connection.

My interactions on iMessage are saved to iCloud. Prior to switching to Apple devices, in 2016, my work phone was damaged beyond repair at a construction site. All of my texts were saved on device, and not recoverable. This does not and cannot occur on iMessage saved to iCloud.

This is all just off the top of my head, and these are features that are desirable and utilized in iMessage, and not available through sms.

Objectively speaking, your statement about iMessage is just plain wrong.

"Remain there" indeed.

As anyone who has ever switched from an iPhone to an Android device will tell you, iMessage makes the process extremely painful, and in totally unexpected ways. You get your new Android phone set up, and suddenly find that you're not getting messages from any of your friends that have iPhones... because those messages are being routed over iMessage instead of SMS.

So you do a bunch of Googling or contact support for your phone manufacturer or wireless carrier, who directs you to an Apple tool for de-registering your number from iMessage. You go through that process, but it takes days/weeks for your de-registration to finally make it through "the system" to everybody's iPhones so that messaging with your friends on iPhones finally starts working again.

Did Apple do this intentionally? No, probably not. Could they solve this problem? You bet they could. But why solve something that makes switching to Android a nightmare?

I remember reading from the Epic vs Apple debacle that Apple decided to not open iMessage for Android phones since 2013:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/22375128/apple-imessage-an...

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