Comment by Workaccount2
2 years ago
iMessage is the most egregious monopolistic tool in Apple's garden.
If the DOJ accomplishes nothing else besides forcing Apple to open up iMessage, it will be a victory.
The lock-in of having functional communication with your friends and family is insane. Take that away and it becomes almost a no-brainier for people to consider competing devices.
And no, nobody with an iPhone is interested in switching to whatever messaging app you beg them to use, just so they can message you.
I totally don't get this perspective. There are so many competing messaging platforms and they all work reasonably well on iOS. Because my various family and friend groups use different messaging apps I use all the following: WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, iMessage, Viber, and once in a while Facebook Messenger. I would say iMessage is kind of middle of the pack here. If I had to pick a favourite it's probably WhatsApp, but unfortunately it's owned by Meta - so I try to use Signal whenever I can. What's so special about iMessage that people think it's a monopolistic tool?
Are your various friends/family all tech-y people?
My "normal" friends and family are majority iPhone users. I'm Android.
I "literally ruin" their group texts. I've seen people actually reject relationships because they don't date people with "green bubbles".
Don't even get me started about work group texts.
I know restaurants where some of the servers have group iMessage chats with customers for early notification about nightly specials, Android users literally can't be added.
Likely not maliciously, but this has created almost a "second/lower class" of phone users that encompasses ~50% of the country.
> Are your various friends/family all tech-y people?
Not at all. A few of my friends are techies and they use Android/iPhone about 50/50. Family is mixed as well. No one in family uses iMessage.
> I've seen people actually reject relationships because they don't date people with "green bubbles".
This seems like a feature, not a bug. I don't think you want to date someone who makes important life choices based on Apple marketing.
Edit: Is this a "Bay Area" problem or something? Or maybe a "young people" problem? I just can't imagine caring about whether someone messages me with "blue" or "green" text bubbles.
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> I've seen people actually reject relationships because they don't date people with "green bubbles".
No, that's stupid. Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but there's no other way to put it: that's just stupid and not worth any consideration in this argument.
Even putting aside the unlikelihood of what kind of idiot would someone have to be to reject a relationship with an Android user, the basic premise of caring about blue vs green is too shallow to form as any basis of a massive suit like this.
"Apple must be broken up because people think my Android phone isn't cool" ??
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> I "literally ruin" their group texts. I've seen people actually reject relationships because they don't date people with "green bubbles".
Yup. We all get this. It's the most effective social lock in ever invented.
>Likely not maliciously
Why?
Its the default iPhone messenger and it works really well when messaging your friends and family, who all also have iphones because it works really well when messaging your friends and family.
HN chronically forgets that the average american cell phone user might know what iMessage actually is. Nevermind even having the faintest idea what a WhatsApp is. Or ever even heard of signal.
> There are so many competing messaging platforms and they all work reasonably well on iOS
And I'd love to have all of them opened up.
> If the DOJ accomplishes nothing else besides forcing Apple to open up iMessage, it will be a victory.
Couldn't Apple just make the shittiest Android iMessage client anyone could ever imaging and the go "See, there it is, nobody wants it"
My take is that Apple has engineered iMessage in such a way that if anyone could just use it, then Apple would be stuck with a massive bill for running the infrastructure, without any benefits. They could in theory charge people a small amount to cover the cost, but that would also just keep people of the platform. WhatsApp made next to nothing when they attempted to charge people and Signal rely on donations. There's no way to push a for-pay messaging app.
iMessage being Apple only isn't what keeps me from buying an Android phone (Google manages to do that all by themselves). I already have three messaging apps on my phone, and four on my laptop, there's plenty of choice on that front.
Agreed. I remember seeing a YT review of the camera on the S23U and really raving about it.
Then he said that he wouldn't use it, because his family and friends won't let him... said they practically staged an "intervention" last time he used a device without imessage.
This wasn't a small YouTuber. Among teens, the pressure is even more real. imessage is being used to drive adoption in a really bizarre way.
How is this a monopoly though? Everyone is free to move their family to WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facebook messenger...
Sure, just set up the seminar to convince people to stop using what already works great so that they can include just you in their group messaging.
> what already works great
Apple's original sin: making great software that works.
It's no surprise this makes other HW and SW companies envious, and everyone wants (and asks the DOJ to secure for them) a piece of the pie.
Haha agreed! I'm not saying it's easy - but I don't see how it's a monopoly
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It already works with SMS, though. You can choose to use 3rd party apps like WhatsApp. I fail to see how users are meaningfully "locked-in" any more than an android
Your average iphone user has no idea what this is.
All the know is "android makes the bubbles green and iMessage doesn't work as well with them, or at all".
Teens get bullied if they show up as green bubbles in group chats. I've had people tell me they wouldn't want to show up as green bubbles to potential romantic partners. The iMessage lock-in effects are real.