In a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the real reason why the company couldn’t solve the controversial green bubble issue.
According to The Verge , at Vox Medial’s Code conference, an attendee told Tim Cook that it was difficult for him to send videos to his mother because Apple devices don’t support RCS – a messaging protocol developed by Google and developed by Google. Supported by major mobile carriers. In response, Mr. Cook asked attendees to buy his mother an iPhone. “I don’t hear from our users asking that we have to focus on that at this point,” he said.
This appears to be Cook’s first mention of RCS, or Rich Communications Services – a major improvement over SMS and MMS intended to allow users to do things like send higher quality photos and videos. The protocol also fixes many of the issues users face when texting between Apple and Android devices . So far, Apple has been limited in providing support and distinguishing between iMessage’s blue bubbles and the green of regular messages. And this is still an annoying thing on the Google side.
Apple has deliberately chosen to make the superior messaging experience over iMessage an Apple-only thing, and Mr. Cook’s comments further prove it. For years, this has been a key part of Apple’s strategy to attract users to its platform. Emails revealed during Epic Games’ battle with Apple show that top executives like Craig Federighi (2013) and Phil Schiller (2016) believe that bringing iMessage to Android will not benefit Apple. While Apple may have created a version of iMessage for Android, that hasn’t been implemented yet.
By making iMessage an Apple-only product, the company is looking to make iMessage the best way for users to message their friends using Apple devices with Apple’s messaging app. While Apple could theoretically apply RCS and keep iMessage on its devices, that shouldn’t make a huge difference when it comes to text messaging between Apple and Android. Creating “discrimination” will have more people buying iPhones.
In recent months, Google has lobbied heavily for Apple to adopt RCS . Of course, Google has implemented it on Android, and it’s also now supported by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Since all three have committed to making the Android messaging app the default messaging app for the Android phones they sell, it’s more likely that people will just text through RCS without thinking about it.