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Comment by adzm | Hacker News Reader

Honestly I just want an Android iMessage app. If this forces Apple's hand that would be awesome.

Is that really a thing? Do Android users en mass want an additional app specifically to chat with iPhone users? There are so many alternative messaging apps that work fantastically. iPhone users aren’t really clamoring for a Google RCS app. This feels like one of those things that everyone would lose interest in as soon as they got it; it’s just the denial of it that works them up, like not being invited to a party they didn’t really want to go to. I think if Apple had organically offered iMessage for Android, it would largely be either neglected or actively boycotted by Android users.

To be honest this is mainly a US thing, and only because iPhone penetration is such a high percentage. Outside of US, Whatsapp and other apps are king

I don't think anyone wants an iMessage specific messaging app. But if it works on Android like iMessage does on iPhone, I bet people would use it. On iPhone iMessage isn't a specific app, the single app just communicates via iMessage or SMS depending on the participants.

In my circle in the US I don't know anyone that uses a 3rd party messaging app on either platform because that really only works if everyone you want to talk to also uses that specific messaging app. Switching depending on who you're talking to is annoying, so (people I know) don't.

As a former android user, yes this is something I wanted badly.

It is much less convenient to be in a group chat with an android user.

As a lone data point, I'm an Android user and I really don't know what iMessage is, why it exists, and why I should care at all.

I've never met anyone whose choice of instant text app is conditioned by the hardware they use.

At this point I wish people from the EU would just understand "Congrats, this doesn't apply to you." The messaging preferences in the EU are totally different due to historical reasons, primarily the high cost of SMSes at the end of the aughts. In the US, the iMessage is by far the dominant, default messaging system for iPhone users. And iPhone market share is much higher in the US than the EU.

> Do Android users en mass want an additional app specifically to chat with iPhone users?

Sure. I already have a different app to chat with WhatsApp users, Facebook messenger users, Discord users, Reddit users, etc.

Even if it's a slightly lesser version of their Messages app, that would be ideal. Just like their Apple Music and Apple TV apps.

I never understood why Google struggled with this. A decade ago they should have cloned iMessage.

I can’t tell if this is a joke about how many messaging apps Google has made or not…

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