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Google and major mobile carriers want Europe to regulate Apple's iMessage platform (www.engadget.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

204 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The long fight to make Apple's iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union's Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that "gatekeepers" not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google's parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's be clear - only a subset of Americans care about the bubbles. And it's annoying to the rest of us too.

The iMessage approach is the obvious solution, Google had a competitor over 10 years ago and killed it. Signal took the same approach and killed SMS just this year.

It's frustrating, because US has the particular problem of SMS being ubiquitous because it became zero-additional-cost for most people by about 2005. The same mindset that keeps people on SMS also creates the blue-bubble nonsense: ease of use and not having to think about it. Signal was making inroads on this, makes me wonder why they stopped supporting SMS.

I have friends who say "I don't want to have to think about where to message someone". Oh, ffs, do you struggle with calling their home/work/cell, or choosing to email or send a letter?

So yea, it's not America vs the rest of the world, it's us vs the complacent/unaware.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Call someone? In America? They'd rather text. I'm in one of these group messages, apparently my bubble is a different color. Though I like my phone from Taiwan, so they can deal with it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Lol, yep.

I don't take unscheduled calls. My phone doesn't even ring, I see nothing. All calls are forwarded to voicemail unless I've set them not to. I don't have time for unsolicited calls (and 99.9% of calls I get are spam).

If my bubble color is a problem for you, it's a problem for you, not me.

Let's be clear, Apple users who refuse to use other apps are excluding 80% of other users. We need to make it painful for them, not help work around the issue. It was their choice to use an app that can't be used by most people.

Hell, I carry an iPhone for work, and use multiple apps there.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I use Beeper and it blows the minds of those iMessage dorks