Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Will iMessage ever come to Android?”.
Last week, ios 15 dropped and apple released, some new changes to facetime. In fact, we covered all those new changes in our last video which you can check out in the card above anyways. Those new changes to facetime finally allow users on windows and android devices to join facetime calls, which previously was only available to apple users, but that got me thinking. Why would apple do this? Why would they open up a closed software to its direct competitors? My guess is that apple felt pressured by the results of the pandemic and wanted to get a piece of the pie before competitors like zoom and google meet take control of the market share, but this also opens up.
Another interesting question: will imessage ever come to android? I’M luke pollock with android authority and today we’re going to talk about whether or not the wild garden of apple might be opening up. First before we go any further, i want to clarify a few things. I understand that, there’s a big probability that imessage will stay locked to apple devices. I also understand that imessage really isn’t that big of a deal in other countries outside of the us and canada. There are plenty of other great alternatives like signal whatsapp and even telegram.
The point of this video is to consider the possibility that imessage could come to android and why that might make sense. Okay, so with that out of the way, let’s talk imessage, so we know that imessage has been locked to apple for years. In fact, in the recent lawsuit of epic versus apple, we found out that back in 2013 apple executive ndq wrote to craig federichi. He said we really need to bring imessage to android.
Do we want to lose one of the most important apps in the mobile environment? To google, to which federici replied, do you have any thoughts on how we would make switching to imessage compelling to masses of android users who don’t have a bunch of ios friends? He continued i’m concerned that imessage on android would simply serve to remove an obstacle to iphone families, giving their kids android phones. Even phil. Schiller said that bringing imessage to android would quote, hurt us more than help us, so it’s pretty clear that apple hasn’t had any plans in the past to bring imessage to android. So then, why did apple open up facetime and what changed? Well. The recent government scrutiny in the aforementioned epic versus apple case hasn’t been helpful for apple. Epic is basically making the argument that apple is breaking any trust laws by having a monopoly on the app store, as a result, apple might be feeling pressured and opening up.
Facetime could be a good pr move to show that apple is willing to be cross-platform. Another reason is the pandemic. I mentioned this earlier, but by opening up, facetime apple is solidifying. Its position in the video call or work from home seen still facetime, isn’t fully open and other platform users will have to use a link to join a facetime call.
But i definitely see this as a trial run for apple. If things go well and adoption is good, then there could be a case for also opening up imessage to android. Then again, there’s the monetary case for imessage on android. I think craig federer.
He was right back in 2013. You would have been hard-pressed to find a hardcore android fan willing to move over the imessage, but now i’m sure, there’s a lot of you who would like to be a part of those blue bubble. Group chats, but still use an android device apple could easily release imessage for android as a subscription cost to offset the amount of potential iphone buyers, they would lose whether or not this would remain cost positive depends on general adoption. Then again, there are so many apple devices in circulation.
Now that i have a pretty hard time, believing that this would hurt apple in the long run sure back in 2013, as phil schiller said, it would have caused more harm than good, but now maybe not so much, and that brings me to my last point – competitors Right now, there’s a pretty big competition between companies like google, facebook signal and even telegram each are trying to establish their own app as the dominant default messaging. App right now. Apple, doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, it’s impossible for everyone in the rest of the world to adopt apple devices, just to use imessage, so apple can either bow out of the race or they can open up imessage and officially compete if they want to Become the number one messenger app, then they have to change something because the rest of the world isn’t waiting.
So i think there are some pretty decent reason why imessage on android is a considerable possibility. Of course, there’s always going to be the argument that opening up imessage would destroy apple’s walled ecosystem, but i think we’re beyond that point. If apple wants to stay competitive, then they have to adapt, but for now we’ll just have to wait for those of you who don’t want to wait.
There actually are a couple of options to use imessage on android now keep in mind. These are somewhat unreliable, but apps like wii message and air message use a mac device to forward imessages to your android phone. If that’s something you want to know how to do or learn more about, let me know down below and i might make a video on it, but that’s going to wrap it up for this video. Let me know down below what your thoughts are. Do you think imessage will come to android? Why or why not. Just let me know down below also feel free to comment. Any other tech, related questions and i’ll answer them at the end of the next article, but that’s gon na wrap it up. I’M luke pock with android authority and i’ll catch you in the next article you .