Bad example. It is not that Apple’s current free Mail app is having competitors scratch their heads. They can get away with it mostly because it is free and there are other alternatives galore. People who pay for their email service will be much more demanding, however.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
You've heard it here first, iMessage is going cross platform
- Thread starter tomtad
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Bad example. It is not that Apple’s current free Mail app is having competitors scratch their heads. They can get away with it mostly because it is free and there are other alternatives galore. People who pay for their email service will be much more demanding, however.
And of course, people who pay for messaging services can and would expect certain things. Eg. Privacy. That's one angle Apple can move in. Like I mentioned, I have met with people who conveyed to me their concerns about WhatsApp, and they ended up paying donation for Signal. These segment should be who Apple can go after, as these people have the awareness and have the willingness to pay. Apple wouldn't care about the mass market (the fact they're keeping iMessage to iOS is an obvious proof).
People who never paid for messaging service or most other online stuff will never understand, and that's fine. They're not the target market.
Nope, will not happen. iMessage is a reason to keep using an iPhone over an Android phone. It would be shooting themselves in the foot if people do not need to buy an iPhone to use iMessage with their friends.
But then again, it could be a nice way to compete with whatsapp from Facebook.
But then again, it could be a nice way to compete with whatsapp from Facebook.
We (iMessage fans) will rule Europe again one day.I am so glad iMessage infatuation has not taken over Europe, but people use other things here that are not depended on one platform.
I'm glad in Europe they start teaching us programming in fourth grade and we learn about every operating system there is. Very happy that Europeans are used to everything and aren't as closed-minded as most Americans when it comes to technology
I know many people who'd never use an iPhone and unfortunately right now I'm battling whether to get an iPhone or not, but iPhones have very awful batteries since iPhone 5s. Samsung phones last way longer and I am glad because Android offers freedom. You can easily download YouTube Vanced and YT Music Vanced.
IPhone battery has been good for me and many others. There are the exceptions at times.
I’m in Norway and people using WhatsApp has always been bewildering too me, it’s a crappy app.
Most people here, nowadays, seem to be using FB Messenger/SnapChat in addition to SMS/iMessage for communicating now.
It kind of is, though. Unlike WhatsApp, it allows multiple devices to independently receive the messages. For WhatsApp, Threema and others, this is currently possibly through the weird workaround of always having the phone be the actual device to receive the message, and to relay that message to a different device.
That's not "no encryption". Yes, it's a bummer that a third party now has your keys, but the solution to that is tricky. Do people want Apple not to recover backups? Most people seem to have voted 'no' on that. (Will Apple one day make this a scary option? Maybe.)
Yeah, I think that's true. WhatsApp is hugely popular, and I don't see much in iMessage that would compel people to switch.
If they had wanted to do that, the moment to do it was many years ago.
RCS is such a failure that I tend to forget it exists.
You‘re comparing Apples to Oranges. Paid for iMessage would never work because the audience for that would be so abysmal that it would never recoup the investment required to develop an Android app and keep it up-to-date in tandem with the iOS version.
There is really no reason iMessage should cost even a cent. The Epic trial Eddy Cue interview / mails even went out of their to outline how „iMessage costs us pretty much nothing to run anyways“.
What could Apple even offer, for a pricetag, that‘d put it above alternate solutions like Signal (from a security / privacy standpoint even above iMessage) other than mere access to a huge iOS userbase.
No it‘s not and it‘s not advanced. AFAIK they generate keypairs per-device with a fan-out system. Probably changed with Messages in iCloud.
Signal also has multi-device setups that work independently of your main device. It‘s not a hard thing to achieve when you know you want multi-device from the get-go (which iMessage wanted to be).
WhatsApp had E2EE thrown into a running system and they are about to introduce their multi-device system soon, so a bulletpoint less on the iMessage advantage list.
Hate to say this but iMessage is not the E2EE godkiller everyone on here makes it out to be. For the vast majority of Apple users (iCloud backups) it‘s pretty much in the same ballpark as Telegram due to either backing up plaintext messages or encryption keys: you are at the mercy of the company to not abuse your Messages.
Maybe you should consider moving to the U.S.
A lot of people got used to WhatsAopp and it spread like a tech virus. It will be hard to get people off WhatsApp and FaceBook etc.
I agree with this. I use iMessage so little that I have to ask my wife what it means when they are coloured differently.
she actually made me get a 7+ years ago so I could iMessage with the family….which we do on WhatsApp….. lol
I think it could happen. It would still be too little too late, kind of like BlackBerry creating, sorry, buying a containerised email service that works on smartphones……
Going to throw in a prediction that this will not happen and instead we'll get several new iMessage features.
With today's swap-out of all the execs' images with memojis, the biggest news has got to be something significant for iMessage. So if not the cross-platform notion, what else could be major enough for this much of a tease?
Samsung has a much larger lead on Apple. Their products are amazing! The level of integration is close to top notch. What's funny is everyone is starting to see the Smoke and Mirrors of Apple.
You really think that’s the only feasible explanation? Apple can make any feature seem a big deal during an announcement. I don’t think cross-platform iMessage will come to light nor would I think Apple would make that a major highlight feature if they ever did.
This whole thread is strangely getting people’s hopes up for some reason.
It wouldn't surprise me to be honest; Apple seems to be trying much harder to make as much as possible from services/subscriptions - stick it on Android/Windows and charge for it and plenty would pay; especially with the backlash against WhatsApp/Facebook recently.
I think that would be strange. Something they have free on their own platform but charge on other platforms. So if you had an apple device and a non apple device would you have to pay for it to use it on the other device? I can’t see the logistics to get that working to charge for it in any way.
I always force my mum to reply to me on iMessage but she always sends back images via WhatsApp because she does not understand the difference since both Apps use a green icon
and then I reply to the image on iMessage and my mum is like "where did the image go?!"
Best parts of iMessage to me are how well it's integrated into the Apple experience; sync among devices; Apple's reputation and concern for security; and that it's free for US users internationally. I'd be very happy to see it succeed cross-platform over the Facebook/WhatsApp cabal.
Not the first time they swapped out executive images for memojis so I don‘t see it as any kind of indication that iMessage goes cross-platform.
The teased „major updates“ for iMessage are probably on the same tier as the iOS 14 ones (reply feature, pinned conversations and typing indicators in the chat overview).
Pick from the following, likely and low hanging fruits:
- Stories feature (similar to WhatsApp)
- Group chat typing indicators
- An about textbox to add to your iMessage profile
- Color tweaks for darkmode
- Potentially inset cell UX (like the Home app), as teased by the accessibility announcement
What I hope „major“ means:
- Slack/Discord/Telegram channels (potentially inside a group chat?) to shift into focused discussions (e.g. upping the inline reply feature)
- RCS support / fallback to help phase out SMS/MMS
- Collaborative features for group chats (e.g. a shared Apple Music listening party like the Spotify listening party that Discord offers, iMessage as the take-off point to have shared iTunes / TV+ viewing parties similar to Disney+/Prime WatchParty) including fleshed out APIs for 3rd party apps to tap into (so Spotify or YouTube can hook into the same collaborative system)
- Default Texting app option for iOS including SMS/MMS(/RCS) APIs that chat apps can tap into (if set as default) like on Android
- Group invite system (e.g. invites have to be accepted, links you can generate and hand out etc.)
The absolute best addition would, however unlikely, be:
- Fix the effing message deletion sync for watchOS or introduce Messages in iCloud for it! I always have to delete automated SMS from my Watch
That being said, I would not object an iMessage for Android app. I just think it‘s 1) unlikely and 2) the wrong move (RCS fallback would be the smarter move if they want to reach more people).
I wouldn’t say FaceTime is completely cross platform now. Only that they now support other platforms to join a FaceTime call.