Not happy, Hiroshi Lockheimer! The big boss of Android at Google has cracked the last few days with a series of murderous tweets against Apple and in particular iMessage. The reason for his anger? An article from Wall Street Journal, which describes how Apple’s messaging system became a must have for American teens, so much so that appearing as a green bubble (reserved for Android smartphones) in iMessage can be synonymous with social exclusion.
In the wake of the publication of the article, Lockheimer split a first comment, to say the least brutal, to the camp opposite.
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
“Apple’s iMessage lockdown is a well-documented strategy. Using social pressure and intimidation to sell products is dishonest for a company that places humanity and fairness at the heart of its marketing strategy. There are standards to remedy this ”.
Through ” standards “, Lockheimer wants to talk about the RCS, or Rich Communicatiions Services, a messaging protocol, developed by the GSMA to succeed the old SMS and MMS, which offers modern messaging functions (group chats, large file transfers, presence, etc.). A standard long set aside, which Google has ended up integrating into Android, more particularly into the Messages application, since 2019.
Apple itself has not followed the same path … Since the end of 2011, the company’s smartphones, tablets and computers have benefited from exclusive instant messaging, designed at the time to compete with emerging instant messengers, such as WhatsApp. Apple made a major strategic choice in 2013, which paid off: that of not porting its app to Android in order to lock up users on its platform and make it more attractive to others.
An old quarrel
” We’re not asking Apple to port iMessage to Android Lockheimer continued on Twitter. ” We ask Apple to support the industry standard for Modern Messaging (RCS) in iMessage, as it already does for older SMS / MMS standards ”.
And continues: ” By not implementing RCS, Apple is holding back the industry and the experience not only of Android users, but of its own customers as well. ”
A reminder that by contenting itself with SMS to communicate with Android smartphones, iMessage also deprives iPhone owners of modern and more secure exchanges.
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This is not the first time that Hiroshi Lockheimer has attacked Apple’s messaging system. Last October, still on Twitter, he was already asking Apple to support the RCS protocol, and that Google was there ” to help “. Apple obviously did not follow through, and it is unlikely that it will ever grant its rival’s wish, unless forced to.
Google has a nice game to defend the “standards” against Apple, and thus pass for the white knight. The support of the RCS is however also the result of a long series of failures in messaging on the side of Google, whose strategy has always been very muddled.
From Google Talk to Allo, Hangouts, Meet and Chat, the online search giant has multiplied initiatives in the past without ever finding the “killer app”.