{"id":32096,"date":"2021-04-09T17:15:34","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T21:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=32096"},"modified":"2022-12-02T15:55:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T20:55:25","slug":"why-theres-no-imessage-for-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/09\/why-theres-no-imessage-for-android\/","title":{"rendered":"Why There’s No iMessage for Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Hardwick<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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It’s no secret that Apple sees iMessage as a big enough selling point to keep the service exclusive to Apple devices, however new court filings<\/a> submitted by Epic Games in its ongoing lawsuit with the company reveal just how Apple executives have rationalized their decision not to develop a version of iMessage for Android.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Ben Lovejoy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It seems Epic did manage to track down Scott Forstall’s phone number<\/a> and depose him, as the former iOS senior vice president is cited as the source of one piece of evidence presented.<\/p>

In an agenda for a 2010 executive team meeting, Apple founder and late CEO Steve Jobs wrote that he wanted to “tie all of our products together, so [Apple] further lock[s] customers into [its] ecosystem” [Forstall]<\/p><\/blockquote>

Eddy Cue also talked about what Apple does “to get people hooked to the ecosystem,” and Epic also presents evidence that this is why Apple never offered iMessage on Android.<\/p>

Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering and the executive in charge of iOS, feared that “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones” […]<\/p>

Schiller commented that “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For some reason, this is being seen as a shocking admission<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Apple first, users second, developers last — those are Apple’s priorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

There are certainly reasons to believe that the exclusivity is good for Apple’s business, though it’s possible that if iMessage were cross-platform it would have become more dominant and that would have eventually accrued benefits to Apple.<\/p>\n\n

But it’s a trade-off because this is definitely worse for Apple’s customers. The user experience and and photo\/video quality are worse when exchanging text messages with Android-using friends and family. And they aren’t end-to-end encrypted. Selling more iPhones is more important than the privacy of those who already have iPhones.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n