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>I see all arguments to force Apple to open up iMessage as punishing them for building a platform that people want that the majority of the US has bought into.

I see all arguments that Apple shouldn't be forced to open up iMessage (or implement RCS) as forcing me to have a worse phone experience because I didn't buy an iPhone from the company that said "if you want to sideload apps, buy an Android".

"Just use a third-party app" is not a solution for people who text with the normal messaging app, and I sure as hell would never beg them to migrate to Whatsapp of all things.

>To force Apple to open up iMessage as a protocol to other devices by fiat seems wholly totalitarian and invasive.

You have this backwards. The totalitarian and invasive part is when I have to beg Apple for permission to use software they wrote, to sell apps to people using devices they sold, etc. This bootlicker mentality of "it's Apple's devices and software" needs to die. Apple is the totalitarian, the EU is trying to stop tyranny.




Absolutely hilarious to see the willingness for folks on this platform to advocate the opening up of something a company built by fiat.

Because YOU don't want to adapt you're asking nay advocating the forceful opening up of another platform to do it for you. That's just lazy.

Think about it like this:

You create a super successful bit of software -- let's call it an operating system -- that runs on a very popular and well designed piece of hardware referred to as an internet phone -- let's call it an iPhone. :-)

It takes off. Market share is just above 50% in the country of it's birth. w00t.

Now folks that haven't licensed your software by buying the hardware you built it for are out with pitch forks to force you to support other internet connected phones when you already do support them just not in the same way. Messages are still able to be sent to these devices but they don't share the same richness.

Why would anyone advocate that something a person with autonomy or a company for that matter be forced by fiat to open up a messaging system or any other bit of kit because the mob wants them to?

People are just frustrated and entitled. This isn't open source software. You can't just go and fork it. There are entire companies that have cropped up that are trying to bridge this blue bubble green bubble divide and that's the solution to take. Until, and unless Apple caves and opens up iMessage it seems wholly un-American to force them to do so when there are alternatives be it something like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, normal SMS and the green bubbles that come with it or moving to an iPhone. I'll never buy the "waaa because I use the built-in app on my Android phone and I want to have blue bubbles when I talk to my friends on iPhones ... waaaaaa!"

There are solutions, I've already outlined them. Pick one.

> Apple is the totalitarian, the EU is trying to stop tyranny.

The EU tends to do this. A successful platform is created and to give shortcuts to other companies to build on that success they force that platform to open to competitors. This is exactly why the EU doesn't have companies that innovate like the US does.


> Absolutely hilarious to see the willingness for folks on this platform to advocate the opening up of something a company built by fiat.

Yes, it's called creating standards and fostering free market competition. This has happened REPETEDLY and time and time again.

Pretty much every standard, cable and tech you're using that works on multiple manufacturers was "something a company built by fiat".

If I'm facetious as you - I'm surprised just how deep corporate bootlicking goes here that outright hurts your ability to vote with the wallet and make modern market capitalism work for you as a user.


Standards come out of standards bodies. There's nothing other than a law or a lawsuit or the threat thereof that would compel to open iMessage as a standard. It's a competitive value-add to adopting the platform.

Free markets are I create something awesome and profit from it not am then forced to allow you and everyone else to build off of my hard work unless I choose to or am forced to.

If Apple was approached by governments or other institutions to use iMessage as the basis of some standard which iirc hasn't been done that'd be one thing. What we do know is that RCS is inferior to iMessage in many ways.

So Apple will adopt standards compliant RCS but it likely won't be the same and lazy Android users who want to stick to the stock app will get to enjoy the spoils of a half-baked solution.

My issue is with this mob mentality of forcing the hand by fiat, lawsuit, or otherwise to coerce a company to open up a tech/product/platform when they built it with no intentions of opening it -- it's proprietary by design.

The free-market works when someone else builds something -- in this case a better phone experience -- that would cause folks to move to that and abandon iMessage. But no -- let's keep our pitchforks and keep insisting some wierd collective ownership bias that means you or I or anyone else has some say over the property and tech of another person or company. Because, sure that makes sense.


> The free-market works when someone else builds something -- in this case a better phone experience -- that would cause folks to move to that and abandon iMessage

The free market fails when the cost for anyone else to enter the market is completely out of reach to anyone else.


That argument fails evidenced by all the various smartphone companies that have emerged. It’s not Apple’s fault that they failed to gain traction. They haven’t provided a marginally better experience or value add enough to make anyone move platforms.


> I sure as hell would never beg them to migrate to Whatsapp of all things.

In many places, most people wouldn't. But Europeans (and some others) seem eager to BCC all their texts to Mark Zuckerberg for some reason.


> In many places, most people wouldn't. But Europeans (and some others) seem eager to BCC all their texts to Mark Zuckerberg for some reason.

There is zero evidence that Facebook is engaging in passive mass surveillance of WhatsApp messages.


Does that mean your prior for whether it’s happening is strongly against? That seems irrational given the history of both meta and the tech industry and govt generally.


> "Just use a third-party app" is not a solution for people who text with the normal messaging app, and I sure as hell would never beg them to migrate to Whatsapp of all things.

But there's no reason to move. Your messages still get to iPhone users via SMS with a different color. What's the beef with the blue v. green anyway? The messages get there. Don't like it? There's plenty of iPhones or other iOS devices that can be had for cheap. They'll last a long time, they'll get tons of updates, they're secure. What's not to love?

Or there are third-party services that you can pay for like Beeper that will act as a bridge.


Try texting an iPhone user a picture or video and look at the garbage they receive from you.




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