iMessage on Android, it appears, may have been a actuality since years. The newest declare courtesy Epic Games’ filings in opposition to Apple, the place the 2 firms are battling out a reasonably excessive profile lawsuit. Arguing that Apple makes use of safety as a “pretext” to preserve customers inside its walled backyard, thereby forcing builders in its ecosystem to pay them a hefty fee, one of many key factors raised by Epic included the occasion of iMessage on Android – or the dearth of it, regardless of repeated rumours through the years. The court docket argument additionally substantiates the rumours that had claimed that Apple was, the truth is, really contemplating opening up its messaging ecosystem right into a cross-platform instrument.
Now, in accordance to Epic, high Apple executives reportedly determined that opening up iMessage on Android would “hurt” the corporate, than “help” it. According to the Epic argument (as reported by 9to5Mac), Craig Federighi, the top of iOS and one in all Apple’s high executives, reportedly acknowledged in an alternate years in the past, “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove the obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” Other high executives who had been cited by Epic embrace Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller, who all reiterated the identical theme across the choice.
What’s attention-grabbing to observe is that iMessage has seemingly been open for cross platform integration for years now, though Apple seems to have firmly determined in opposition to it. Whether it may have develop into fashionable sufficient to rival WhatsApp even on Android is anybody’s guess, however Apple has clearly gone the opposite route by turning iMessage into a good tighter match for iOS, and iOS solely. While Apple has confronted appreciable criticism for its ‘walled garden’ method to software program, it has used this very facet to its profit in lots of types – safety being one in all them.
However, on condition that Apple faces plenty of anti-trust instances primarily based precisely on this, it can be attention-grabbing to see if the Epic Games case finally ends up being a landmark level within the historical past of Apple and its developer relations. As for iMessage on Android – solely time will inform if Apple decides a do-over and finally rethink locking it down to iOS solely.
Read all of the Latest News and Breaking News right here
