Hiroshi Lockheimer, head of Android at Google, says he doesn’t want Apple to integrate iMessage into Android. But he has stepped up calls for iMessage to support the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard used on Android.
RCS is the modern version of the SMS standard which is supported by Android, but not Apple’s iMessage (which supports SMS).
This technical shortcoming was highlighted in an article by Wall Street Journal from last weekend, which explains how American teens are using iMessage to socially isolate Android users from group chats. Messages from Android users display in iMessage in green bubbles, while messages received from other iPhone users display in blue bubbles.
Peer pressure as a marketing argument
The Hiroshi Lockheimer’s answer is that Apple’s “iMessage lock” shows that it “uses peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products” and suggests that iMessage support for RCS would solve this problem.
Apple’s iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this. https://t.co/MiQqMUOrgn
– Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) January 8, 2022
Hiroshi Lockheimer, who last year offered Apple Google’s help to enable RCS support on iMessage, added a clarification to his initial response to the WSJ article on Monday.
“We are not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android. We ask Apple to support the RCS standard in iMessage, just as they support the old SMS and MMS standards ”, he writes on Twitter.
Keep children in the iPhone ecosystem
Confidential emails from Apple executives, leaked in the lawsuit against Epic Games, show the iPhone maker believes that bringing iMessage to Android “would remove a barrier for families. used to iPhones give their children Android smartphones, ”as The Verge noted.
Google is the main promoter of RCS thanks to multiple deals with major carriers, but RCS has yet to become a standard like SMS, in part because Apple has so far refused to support it in iMessage as it does for SMS.
Hiroshi Lockheimer added other reasons why it would be good for everyone if Apple supported RCS in iMessage.
Make RCS the new SMS
“Why is this important? Phone-based messaging is the fallback solution that we all know will work, ”he explains. “If you want to reach someone and you don’t know if they are using the x, y or z app, you have great confidence that sending a text (SMS) will work. This is because it is a standard and is supported by virtually all mobile devices. This is probably the reason why Apple initially supported SMS. “
Apple’s support for RCS would improve the experience for iOS and Android users, he said, adding that “RCS will also improve the experience and privacy for iOS users.”
“By not integrating RCS, Apple is slowing down the industry and the user experience, not only for Android users, but also for its own customers,” he writes.
Source: ZDNet.com