The air of exclusivity has always surrounded Apple’s products, even if it was often just about isolation. A method to keep competitors away and customers in your own universe. These methods include Apple’s own messaging system iMessage. Communication with Android users only takes place via SMS and MMS, and messages from Android devices appear on iPhones with a green bubble, not a blue one. “Green bubble shame” is what they call it in the USA.
But now “hell is freezing over,” as the US portal Techradar.com calls it. Next year, iPhone users will be able to communicate with Android device users from iMessage, with high-resolution videos or images. This should be made possible by an update in the iOS operating system.
If you’re now wondering, wait a minute, pictures, videos, I’ve been doing that for a long time, you use third-party apps like Whatsapp or Signal. These have always worked across systems, with photos, videos, group chats and so on. So far, iMessage has only allowed SMS to be sent to Android users. Or if there are pictures and videos, MMS. However, some mobile phone providers still charge high fees for the latter.
Of course there is also a catch
From a technical point of view, the way things will work in the future is that Apple will expand its software to include the RCS messaging protocol. RCS stands for Rich communication services. Rich because it includes multimedia capabilities. Both the network operators and Google, developer of the Android operating system, had been urging Apple to finally introduce RCS for years. RCS is developed by Google together with the GSMA, the global mobile industry association.
Of course, there is also a catch: the RCS standard does not currently support end-to-end encryption. Google has developed additional software for RCS, but Apple doesn’t just want to take it over. Instead, the GSMA should include such secure encryption directly in the standard.
Although Apple admits that RCS is technologically superior to the SMS and MMS used previously, the move the company announced on Thursday was probably not entirely voluntary. The background is probably that Apple wants to avoid trouble with the EU. Apple’s previous behavior with iMessage could run counter to the Digital Markets Act. Apple apparently cannot activate RCS by default, but relies on mobile phone providers such as Telekom or Vodafone to integrate it.
Overall, it shows how hard Apple is trying to maintain exclusivity. That’s why Cupertino, Apple’s headquarters, shouldn’t exactly be happy about what a small provider from the Android camp has now announced. If you send messages to an iPhone from a “Nothing Phone” from Nothing, the blue bubble will appear on the iPhone rather than the green one. Mimicry in a world of status symbols.
Transparency note: An earlier version of the article stated that RCS messages would appear in a blue bubble on iPhones. Apple has since denied this.