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Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

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Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#102
post #28

Not only did Apple miss an opportunity to own global messaging, Google could have done the same if they had designed Allo with SMS fallback similar to iMessage. I have no idea what they were thinking with Allo, but they blew one of the easiest layups I’ve ever seen.

Because of antitrust concerns. It amuses me every time this suggestion resurfaces here because this community is most familiar with anti-Google pressure when it tries to use its market share like this.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#103
post #2

They would have captured 100% of the messaging market. Reminds me of '90s *Nix companies with sales bros wanting to sling around overpriced hardware, preventing expansion of the company in other fronts.

I don't know. Android is not exactly a place with a lot of paid software. No way Apple would make it free for Android and ad supported. Maybe they could have come up with some kind of iCloud Android bundle, and maybe it would have done well, but I am not convinced there is a massive market for a paid consumer messaging service.

OP doesn't sound like they were arguing that iMessage should be a paid service, just that Apple could've captured most of the market.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#104
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a family, small children, relatives. Grandparents loves to see videos of their grandchildren. Sharing a video via group MMS is fraught with problems, it often doesn't work, or the resolution is garbage. iMessage works every time. I'm not dismissing your experience but the green vs blue bubbles do make a big difference for many of us.

In my case I don't care for the green/blue bubble divide, EXCEPT that I have a limited SMS plan and every time someone messages me it potentially costs me $0.10. That is not that significant until someone sends a series of short messages that could have been bundled into one, and I can't help but think "this person just cost me the price of a coffee". It's not even Apple's fault, but rather AT&T's confusing and expen…

We switched from AT&T to T-Mobile years ago and have had a great experience.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#105
post #65
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i honestly don’t remember what period of time you are referring to. could you elaborate on examples from the period of time iOS was “fraught with very unexpected failure modes?” edit: i just saw your edit to specify iMessage the app.

For folks switching to iOS for the first time from Android the experience can be incredibly frustrating, if you don't know that you're supposed to do things "The Right™" way. Examples from personal anecdotes include: - My first Macbook pro several years ago was the cheapest one at the time, and basically got stuck in a boot loop when I opted out of creating an apple ID on setup. Needed to boot into safe mode and fact…

No.. the 2FA stuff is awkward as hell even for someone that’s been in the ecosystem for years.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#106
post #2

They would have captured 100% of the messaging market. Reminds me of '90s *Nix companies with sales bros wanting to sling around overpriced hardware, preventing expansion of the company in other fronts.

I don't know. Android is not exactly a place with a lot of paid software. No way Apple would make it free for Android and ad supported. Maybe they could have come up with some kind of iCloud Android bundle, and maybe it would have done well, but I am not convinced there is a massive market for a paid consumer messaging service.

I think making iMessage free on Android and then using it as a tool to migrate people from Android to iPhone would more than pay for itself.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#107
post #76
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just know that if you have an iPhone, you have to set your MMSC to Apple's servers versus the carrier's servers. I don't believe this is true. To the best of my knowledge (and a quick Google) Apple has no MMSC servers. I've certainly never input any. SMS and MMS sent on iOS use the same servers an Android phone would. But when the target phone number is detected as being iMessage capable that whole system is igno…

Fair enough. For a day or so I was looking up if I could somehow emulate iMessage on a Pinephone, and I remember a lot of it being a non-starter unless you had an iPhone. It stuck out to me that Apple had their own MMSC for some reason. But perhaps it is old news or I read the wrong post?

On an iphone, when you send a text message, apple will take a look at the phone number you're sending it to and check if it's linked to an imessage account. If it's linked to an imessage account, you're not sending a text anymore, you're using an internet service just like whatsapp.

There is no technical relationship between SMS and imessage, but to the user it's the same interface

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. Android is not exactly a place with a lot of paid software. No way Apple would make it free for Android and ad supported. Maybe they could have come up with some kind of iCloud Android bundle, and maybe it would have done well, but I am not convinced there is a massive market for a paid consumer messaging service.

I think making iMessage free on Android and then using it as a tool to migrate people from Android to iPhone would more than pay for itself.

i think making it free for android would have certainly made it easier for people to try android for their next device, and thus the net balance isn't really clear..

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and WhatsApp is not as popular in the US, with messaging being very fragmented between a variety of other Facebook products.

WhatsApp was a game changer for people that had international contacts. Before WhatsApp, all the mobile networks (at least in the US) charged exorbitant amounts of money for international SMS and MMS. Then, WhatsApp came and it was free and cross platform, compressed images and video to send them quick with decent quality, and free of spam. Absolutely perfect execution, in my opinion. If it was not owned by Facebook,…

they owe a huge part of success intially to tricking people into what you describe -- that it's a replacement/better than SMS -- that it's "free". When it was simply that ppl couldn't tell difference between SMS network and Internet. And using phone numbers as accounts got a ton of people in non-American areas to use it (also north american texting rates crazy cheap unlike alot of the whatsapp-popular countries). Ridiculous. When all it is is another internet messaging app.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#110
The reason for not bringing iMessage to Android was because parents could just buy cheap Android handsets for their kids. First of all, why not create a product for that niche (nevermind, we're talking about Apple). But what actually bothers me is the weak mindset. I remember when Apple didn't have such concerns because they were certain that they have the best product and people would buy for that reason. This is going on across the board at Apple it'll eventually lead to its IBMification.
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