Comment on Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage

• lemmyvore@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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  • alvvayson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • lemmyvore@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Maybe. Google certainly has a vested interest in RCS — but the others don’t. RCS is a large standard which goes beyond interconnecting networks. They can just as well design something smaller that only achieves the minimum necessary.

      You have to keep in mind that these companies don’t want this. If they can waste time designing a new standard, they will. They are also not looking to re-implement their entire networks, they most certainly don’t want to “open them up”, they just want to comply with the letter of the law with as little change as possible.

      Also keep in mind that RCS has glaring faults, such as the lack of encryption.

      My guess is that they’re going to try to agree on a common message format, common API and common encryption protocol and leave it at that. There are already plenty of standards out there that cover these needs.

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      • alvvayson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Perhaps. I am unfamiliar with merits of RCS versus alternatives.

        Howsver, any solution that enables extra proprietary functionality outside of the standard would be non-compliant, so I don’t think they will be able to get a half-baked solution through.

        Also, the EU has zero interest to play softball with these companies. If they can punish them with a billion euro fine for not complying, they definitely will.

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• incompetentboob@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  They’ll find some way to make it cumbersome and difficult to use so that no one bothers.

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  • alvvayson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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• echo64@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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

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