Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage

iMessage serves as “an important gateway between business users and their customers” and should be regulated as a “core” service under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google and a group of major telecoms companies said. Europeans in a letter sent to the European Commission, and seen by financial time. Being designated as a “core platform service” would be important for iMessage, as it could force Apple to make it interoperable with other messaging services.

Google has clearly expressed its desire for Apple to adopt RCS, the cross-platform messaging standard presented as a successor to SMS, with its #GetTheMessage Campaign. “Apple’s iMessage blocking is a documented strategy,” Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer published in X, then known as Twitter, last year. “Using peer pressure and harassment as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and fairness at the core of its marketing. The standards exist today to solve this problem.”

Apple’s Messages app can now send cross-platform messages via SMS. But improved iMessage features, such as encryption and better quality photos and videos, are exclusive to the Apple ecosystem. Apple iMessage users communicate with feature-rich blue bubbles, while everyone else is relegated to humble green.

The letter, which FOOT The note, signed by an anonymous Google senior vice president along with the CEOs of Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange, maintains that iMessage meets the threshold to be a core platform service under the Digital Markets Act. That is, it is being operated by a company with annual revenues of more than €7.5 billion and at least 10,000 monthly active commercial users in the EU. The focus on enterprise users reflects the fact that they are considered the “gatekeepers” and their core platform services.Provide an important gateway between companies and consumers.”under the DMA.

“Through iMessage, business users can only send rich messages to iOS users and must rely on traditional SMS for all other end users,” reads the letter, which was sent to Internal Market Commissioner Thierry. Breton. iMessage is an important gateway between businesses and their customers, and this is “certainly the justification for Apple’s designation as the gatekeeper of its iMessage service,” the letter argues.

Apple did not immediately respond to The edge request for comment. The company pointed out financial time towards a statement saying “consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps and often use many at once, reflecting how easy it is to switch between them.”

“iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA,” the statement continued. According to the CommissionApple has previously argued that iMessage is not popular enough in the EU to justify its designation as a core platform service, and that it lacks support for business-focused features such as APIs.

The Commission’s investigation into whether iMessage should be designated as a core platform service under the DMA is ongoing. A decision is expected before February next year.