Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage
Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage
It’s #GetTheMessage, regulatory style.
Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage::iMessage serves should be regulated under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google and a group of major European telcos has told the European Commission.
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“Through iMessage, business users are only able to send enriched messages to iOS users and must rely on traditional SMS for all the other end users,”
I don't see how that's weird at all? I can send "enriched messages" to other Discord users, but I can't do that from Discord to Matrix. Or from Discord to SMS. I can't text my friend's Instagram either. I don't dare say whether or not I can mail a post onto the fediverse because that definitely sounds like some niche functionality someone has implemented (or thought to implement) somewhere.
Doesn't Google have that exact same thing anyway?
What a weird thing to take issue with. Like yeah I'd obviously prefer it if there was a widely adopted open standard that everyone could use, but that's not how capitalism works, is it?
but that's not how capitalism works, is it?
That’s why regulation exists.
Oh I'd love for our governments to get their collective hands out of their arseholes and actually start regulating.
Wouldn’t it be nice
That's weird because it's against the law.
A recent (few months ago) EU law mandates that if your platform is big enough (in the EU market) to gatekeep users from using other platforms, then it must interoperate with competing services. That means you should thrive because you make a better product, and not because it has more users.
The fine is a considerable percentage of the company's earnings, that supposedly even the likes of Amazon and Google cannot overlook.
This includes Whatsapp that in a few months will have to be interoperable with competing services like telegram. This requires a protocol, the IETF is working on that. Google probably wishes to use RCS, but Matrix is also working with the IETF.
Apple says iMessage is not that widespread in the EU and should not be included, Google says it is and should be regulated, that's because this regulation will most likely have effects even outside the EU.
Apple says iMessage is not that widespread in the EU and should not be included, Google says it is and should be regulated, that’s because this regulation will most likely have effects even outside the EU.
I'm not surprised they'd say that, even though it's a bald-faced lie. iMessages isn't an opt-in service, you can't even opt-out of it; it's fully automatic. If your text recipient has an iPhone and can use iMessages, it's sent via that. There seems to be a way to opt-out of this in settings. though I've not tried it myself.
You say iMessage isn’t an opt-out service, then immediately state the setting option that allows users to opt out. Yes, if you toggle off iMessage you will send via SMS instead and won’t be sending through iMessage at all.
Ha, what a blooper. What I meant was that you're never presented with an option to send via text rather than iMessage, but have to dig through the settings app to change it.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense. Though all my experience with an active apple device, there’s a default to send a failed iMessage as an SMS so it’s essentially covered. iMessage just allows like-devices to communicate via internet connection rather than phone towers.
Ah that’s probably the case here too. I just don’t text people, or use iMessage very much.
I think it's weird because:
Your iMessage and FaceTime conversations are encrypted end-to-end, so they can’t be read while they’re sent between devices.
Is completely bullshit. It's not secure, they can be read because iMessage is the way you send texts to Android as well as iOS, and apples absolute refusal to budge or to adopt other standards means that regulation is the only way to modernize a 30 year old protocol.
This is not accurate. iMessages are only sent between Apple devices, you cannot send an iMessage to android, or any other non-Apple device.
I think they're getting away with it because of the phrasing.
Messages sent through the iMessage service are encrypted, but not all messages you sent through the Messages (note the lack of i) app are iMessage messages. It's the exact type of fucking sneaky bullshit that should be regulated so hard it stops existing, but I guess our regulators don't think it's a big deal right now.
@edinbruh@feddit.it mentions in another comment that
A recent ... EU law mandates that if your platform is big enough ... to gatekeep users from using other platforms, then it must interoperate with competing services.
And I think this is how Apple would "sneak" through this as well. The Messages app doesn't lock you into a communications protocol. If the recipient has iMessages, it sends via that, if not, it sends via SMS/MMS. No idea if that argument would hold, I hope it wouldn't. I would honestly prefer it if there was just a single open messaging standard that anyone could hook into, because closed proprietary tech is fucking bullshit on every single level.
As someone who occasionally meets people with Android phones, yes, I’d like to see “chartreuse bubbles” for RCS in Messages
Then again, I was a huge fan of Pidgin back in the days, with its goal to speak every texting protocol
Not really the same thing, no. What you're overlooking is the way Apple integrates iMessage with SMS. Nobody signs up for an iMessage account or intentionally uses iMessage as a standalone service like you would with a discrete messaging service like Discord. It's presented as a seamless enhancement to SMS that is built into your messaging app whether you want it or not. The issue with that is certain features of iMessage are sent over SMS/MMS regardless of whether the receiving device supports them, which basically hijacks the standard with closed features and makes SMS worse for anyone who doesn't own an iPhone but knows somebody who does.
I've literally been unable to participate in group texts with iPhone users before because every message comes through as an unsupported MMS. Imagine getting 30+ message notifications from a group chat each day but you can't actually open any of them. iPhone users reasonably expect that it'll work for everyone because it's just part of their text app. They're not doing anything special or wrong by just using their text app, but there's some proprietary iMessage fuckery under the hood designed to make the experience worse for anyone who hasn't paid Apple. It's frustrating to everyone involved, and Apple knows exactly what they're doing.