Google is hoping regulators will bail it out of the messaging mess it created after years of broken product reboots. financial times newspaper Google and several mobile phone companies are reportedly asking the EU to designate Apple’s iMessage as a “core” service requiring interoperability under a new “digital markets law.” The EU’s digital market law targets Big Tech “gatekeepers” with a variety of functions. Interoperability, fairness, and privacy Although iMessage did not participate in the first part of the service announced in September, Apple’s Messenger is undergoing “market research” to determine whether it is eligible.
So far, various services from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft have been subject to “gatekeeper” status, which means the EU has a “critical relationship between businesses and consumers regarding core platform services.” This is because it provides a gateway for This list covers operating systems and app stores, advertising platforms, browsers, social networks, instant messaging, search, and video sites, and specifically excludes webmail and cloud storage services.
The standards for Gatekeeper Services are all centered around business use. Services that the EU wants to include must have at least 45 million monthly active EU users, at least 10,000 annual active businesses in the EU, a turnover of at least €7.5 billion, or a market value of €75 billion. Although the total amount will be included, there are some caveats. These are just guidelines and the EU is open to a two-way discussion. When the initial list was announced in September, the EU said iMessage did indeed meet the regulatory standards, but was removed from the list while heeding Apple’s argument that it should not be covered. It is said that
Google and carriers Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Orange have sent a letter to the European Commission detailing their arguments as to why iMessage should be regulated. The argument is what you would expect: “Business users can only send enriched messages to iOS users via iMessage and must rely on traditional SMS for all other end users.” It’s about content. Apple’s counterargument is that it’s too small to regulate: “iMessage is too small compared to other messaging services to be a significant gateway for business users to reach end users.” Stated. The company also argues that because “iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications,” it should not be subject to business-centric digital marketplace laws.
In the EU, iMessage is on the fringes of regulation, as the primary messaging services are Facebook products WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. It’s hard not to think that Google is using the EU as a stepping stone to bring Apple into the US. Other countries are often confused by this, but in the United States, iMessage has become a cultural phenomenon among some people. Pop star boyfriend Drake says:text turns green” is a Billboard Top 100 song about the inner workings of iMessage.today is amazing 87 percent of American teenagers own an iPhone, according to the Wall Street Journal.Teens are afraid of green speech bubbles” details how children are subject to bullying if they don’t use Apple’s messaging platform.
Google’s response is its “Get Messages” campaign, which successfully asks Apple to adopt a slightly better form of SMS for green bubbles called RCS. However, it is unclear how this will help with the bullying problem. EU regulations mean Apple only has to operate in the EU, rather than the United States, its most dominant market. Of course, the only person to blame for coming last in the instant messaging wars is Google itself. By our count, Google has released at least 13 messaging apps since his iMessage debuted in 2011. platform.
The deadline for the European Commission’s decision on iMessage is February 2024. If iMessage is eligible, Apple would have to start rolling it out by August.