Also yesterday, Reuters reported that the European Commission has begun trying to establish whether iMessage should be brought under the remit of the EU’s new antitrust law, the Digital Markets Act, which imposes interoperability requirements (among other things) on so-called gatekeeper services that are part of many people’s daily lives.
Apple’s iOS operating system, App Store, and Safari browser already fall under the DMA, which is likely to force Apple to allow third-party app stores on iPhones and iPads, but Apple so far managed to lobby the Commission into leaving iMessage out of it. If the Commission decides after its investigation that iMessage is worth regulating in this way, Apple would have until August next year to introduce some form of interoperability—presumably with RCS.
Comment on Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage
echo64@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The pressure doesn’t matter, apple makes a legitimate amount of money from people scared of being a different colored bubble. Unless someone actually writes it into law and makes a provision that all the bubbles must appear the same, nothing will change
stardust@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Two related issues are being confused/conflated here.
The first is the American cultural significance of the green and blue bubbles. This is the thing that Europeans generally don’t care about as most are using WhatsApp et. al.
The second is the lack of interoperability between chat protocols such that it degrades the experience for everyone. This is what the EU is targeting.
I don’t think the colours of chat bubbles for specific devices as displayed by other specific devices falls under that remit. The implementor must comply with providing the same service level though. Whether or not this will lead to less cultural significance for bubble hues in the US remains to be seen.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 8 months ago
It won’t be with RCS. The “gatekeeper” criteria applies to interoperation between dominant technologies. RCS has very small adoption in Europe. If iMessage will make the cut it will have to integrate with Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and Signal.
incompetentboob@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t get why more people don’t understand this. There is literally no way Apple is going to ditch iMessage or open it up voluntarily.
alvvayson@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Cue the EU.
They already got Apple on USB-C, repairability and RCS are next.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 8 months ago
There’s a difference between USB and RCS though. With RCS the standard was stillborn and the only surviving implementation is alive because it’s Google-controlled and represents their Nth attempt at a message platform. I don’t want to see something controlled by Google become a standard of communication. We’ve already seen what happens to such de facto standards, they have very bad aspects.
alvvayson@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The EU will not mandate RCS, just like they did not mandate USB explicitly.
They will only mandate standardization, which will force Apple, Google and Meta (as owner of WhatsApp) to agree on a standard and then enforce that standard.
RCS is just the most likely outcome.
incompetentboob@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They’ll find some way to make it cumbersome and difficult to use so that no one bothers.
alvvayson@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m sure their shareholders will appreciate getting billion dollar fines.
/s
At best they will keep it out of the US market, until US regulators get up to speed.
echo64@lemmy.world 8 months ago
iMessage isn’t anywhere near as popular in the EU as it is in the US, so it’s just not as big of a problem for them to target and apple is doing a good job lobbying them not to
fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
This is weirdly only a thing in America. In Europe, where I live, iMessage isn’t that popular and iPhone users never seem to care about the bubble colour (likely because WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Element, and Threema are so popular, everyone is used to using multiple chat apps anyway).
nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 8 months ago
RCS is an implementation of GSMA Universal Profile and is interoperable with it
fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I don’t see any public license for GSMA Universal Profile and it seems you have to engage directly with GSMA to get any detail on the standard. Very much the opposite of things like Signal which not only are the standards public but so are the reference implementations.
I still don’t see an argument for why yet another proprietary standard and protocol is a good thing.
nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 8 months ago
well RCS is to be the successor to SMS, which I believe was also introduced by GSMA
stevehobbes@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It is controlled and monetizable by the telcos. It isn’t better. And it’s barely standardized. Google sells a service to telcos to implement RCS that doesn’t really work well with anyone else’s RCS, or didn’t.
Go look at the amount of threads with people saying “my RCS message from my Samsung didn’t get to my friend on T-Mobile with a pixel”.
This is not the future anyone deserves.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have never heard of anyone in the U.S. who cares about the bubble color either. The only reason I ever cared was that it used to mean there was a good chance it wouldn’t get through if it was a green bubble, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I’ve gotten iPhone-to-iPhone green bubbles when there’s been some sort of communication difficulty to Apple’s servers and it had to go straight SMS.
ericisshort@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Are you dating or in school at the moment? I if not, it might be that you’re just oblivious to this trend, because it is definitely a thing in many social circles.
fignooton@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Seeems mostly a US centric thing though. I’ve never experienced this, 99% of people here with smartphones have whatsapp/telegram and use that almost exclusively, even iphone users.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Maybe for people much younger than me. But certainly I’ve never heard of such a thing in the many years I’ve had iPhones (started with the 3).
Zak@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I haven’t encountered any adults who actually care about that in one-on-one conversations. I have however been excluded from group chats because mixing iMessage and SMS users resulted in a degraded experience. The iPhone users were, of course unwilling to consider installing any other chat app.
I find the last bit pretty annoying. It takes about 45 seconds to download Signal and confirm your number.
paintbucketholder@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I just had that conversation with a group of adults who all had iPhones and were unwilling to add non-iPhone people to a group or change messaging apps.
The reasons given were:
The conclusion by the group was “just buy an iPhone!”
And that’s a group of adults. I can’t imagine the bullying and peer pressure teenagers have to face over something as idiotic as messaging apps.
akafester@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have to say that in Denmark at least, iMessage seems to thrive quite well. There are quite a lot using Facebook messenger, but SMS and iMessage is a close second. This is entirely from my point of view. Never met anyone using the examples you mention, unless they are communicating with foreigners on a daily basis.
NoMoreCocaine@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In finland everyone I know uses WhatsApp, and my friend circle and family also use Signal. So, eh.
obbelusk@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s popular in Sweden too
Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
It is proprietary but at least it will interoperable with other phones and carriers.