Google is more than tired of Apple’s strategy with iMessage

Google is calling on Apple to support the RCS standard for advanced chat features in iMessage. That comes in response to the news that children with Android devices in the US are being bullied because they can only send text messages to iPhones.

iMessage and RCS

The debate surrounding Apple’s closed messaging platform iMessage has been rekindled. According to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal children with android phones are being bullied in the US. That’s because the messages they send to iPhones get a green message bubble instead of a blue one. That color indicates in iMessage that these are regular text messages and that there is no support for advanced chat functions such as sending stickers and GIFs.

Google Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer says Apple’s closed messaging system should be done with. “We’re not asking Apple to release iMessage on Android. We’re asking Apple to support the industry standard for modern messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS/MMS standard,” he said. in a tweet.

The benefits of RCS

It Android official Twitter account then continued on Lockheimer’s statements: “iMessage should not take advantage of bullying. Messaging should bring us together and the solution exists. Let’s solve this as one industry.”

– Read more below the tweet –

Google has long been the biggest proponent of the RCS standard, which is supported in Google Messages, among other things. With RCS you can share photos and videos, send stickers and gifs, like messages and see when the other person is typing. All functions that we are familiar with from well-known messaging apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp.

Apple’s strategy

For Apple, it is a conscious strategy to limit the availability of special chat functions. This was already apparent in the leaked conversations of Apple executives in a lawsuit between Apple and game developer Epic Games. Apple uses iMessage so that iPhone users would stay in the Apple ecosystem. In the leaked conversations, Apple’s top executives are literally talking about a “lock-in”.

Lockheimer also accuses Apple that the company not only negatively affects the user experience for Android users, but also that of iPhone owners. In October, Google already reached out to its competitor to make RCS available for iMessage together.

What do you think? Will there be a time when RCS for iMessage will become a reality? Do you think Google is primarily jealous of the success of Apple’s messaging app? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.

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