For several years now, Apple has still refused to accept the new RCS protocol, which is more reliable and secure, thus endangering its users in addition to creating discrimination around iMessage.
On his Twitter account, Hiroshi Lockheimer, the boss of Android and Vice President of Google accused Apple use peer pressure and bullying as a means of selling products. The executive points to the behavior of American teens who have turned iMessage into a status symbol that excludes Android users.
Indeed, when you receive a message on an iPhone, if it appears in a blue bubble, it means that it was sent from another iPhone from iMessage. However, if it appears in a green bubble, it uses the less reliable SMS protocol, and probably comes from an Android smartphone. The problem is, young Americans often take a very dim view of these green bubbles, and some even go so far as to harass their friends to buy an iPhone.
Apple takes advantage of pressure from users to sell more iPhones
According to Hiroshi Lockheimer, the refusal to adopt RCS is part of a ” documented strategy “Which uses fan behavior towards Android users to sell more iPhones, despite marketing focused on” humanity and fairness “. Indeed, thanks to the pressure exerted by those around them, Apple would succeed in convincing teenagers to buy an iPhone so as not to feel excluded from the “cool group”.
So many American teens feel that Apple’s iMessage service has become a way for iPhone users to show that they don’t just own an iPhone, but that they have an iPhone.they are part of an exclusive messaging platform. The Wall Street Journal even found in an investigation that the sister of a young girl ” laughed at her for exchanging texts with potential lovers using android phones “, Qualifying the green bubbles as” disgusting “. Instead of prohibiting the exchange of texts between iOS and Android devices, Apple preferred to make its messages blue to stand out from its rival.
Apple’s iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this. https://t.co/MiQqMUOrgn
– Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) January 8, 2022
The boss of Google is not asking Apple to launch iMessage on Android, but to adopt RCS which will only bring benefits to its users. ” We are not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android. We ask Apple to support the Industry Standard for Modern Messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS / MMS standards Lockheimer notes on Twitter.
Unlike SMS, this new standard allows route messages through data, while allowing better quality multimedia sharing, acknowledgments of receipt, keystroke indicators, location functionality, VoIP and video calling functions or even reactions to messages with smileys. It therefore offers an experience very similar to iMessage.
Apple refuses to adopt RCS, despite all the benefits of the new protocol
As a reminder, if Apple refuses to adopt the new universal protocol, it is to highlight iMessage. Indeed, we had already seen that the American giant wanted young people to go through iMessage as a priority to communicate. “The presence of iMessage on Android only serves to remove a barrier for iPhone families who give their children Android phones “Said Federighi, vice president of software engineering at Apple.
By refusing to adopt the new RCS protocol, Apple is deliberately endangering its users. This is because when iPhone and Android users communicate via the SMS protocol, the messages are not end-to-end encrypted, unlike the RCS protocol. By using the RCS, Apple would therefore allow its fans to enjoy an experience similar to iMessage with Android smartphone users, while strengthening the security of their conversations.
By not incorporating RCS, Apple is holding back the industry and holding back the user experience for not only Android users but also their own customers.
– Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) January 10, 2022
For now, RCS is not as universally supported by operators, but if Apple were to make its smartphones compatible, this could push all operators to adopt it as well. Google had already offered to help Apple implement the RCS protocol in its system, so it is now up to Apple not to ” curb the industry and the user experience of its customers As Lockheimer notes. By adopting the RCS protocol, Apple could therefore sell a little less iPhones, but it would be for the benefit of the safety of its users.
Source: Wall Street Journal
