Google accuses Apple of discriminating against Android users and bullying teenagers over iMessage
Recently, representatives of Google criticized one of the main competitors of the corporation - Apple. The reason was the policy regarding the messaging service iMessage.
What's wrong?
Vice President Android company Hirosho Lockheimer is unhappy that Apple is still not adding iMessage support to Android, and even talks about discrimination Android users...
Moreover, a Google spokesman even spoke of encouraging teen bullying. According to the WSJ, today iMessage has become a must-have tool for teens in the United States, and abandoning it leads to bullying. Teens with Android smartphones can't chat with friends using iMessage and are forced to buy an iPhone in order not to look worse than others. Apple itself, according to Lockheimer, is thus increasing sales of its smartphones.
Proof of this comes from documents released during Apple's recent lawsuit against Epic Games. For example, an email from Apple's Phil Schiller says that "bringing iMessage to Android will hurt us more than it will help us." Craig Federighi, Sr. vice president a software developer at Apple wrote, "iMessage on Android will simply remove the barrier for iPhone families who give their kids Android phones."
In addition, Hiroshi Lockheimer urged the company to implement support for the RCS (Rich Communication Services) standard in iMessage. It is a short message and contact information protocol between subscribers, which was proposed by the GSMA in 2008 as a replacement for the aging SMS short text message service protocol. Google promotes this protocol in every possible way and emphasizes its advantages: there is no limit on the number of characters, you can send files and photos without compression, there are group chats, end-to-end encryption and notifications about reading the message by the interlocutor.
True, after that, the head of Google noted that he was not asking Apple to make iMessage cross-platform - the company had enough to add support for the RCS standard to iMessage.
“RCS support will improve the experience for both iOS and Android users. Yes, RCS will also improve the experience and privacy for iOS users. By not implementing RCS, Apple is holding back the industry and limiting the experience not only for Android users, but also for its customers. ”