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Microsoft says it would love to work with Apple to bring iMessage support to Win
- platinumrad 8y agoDo yourself a favor and skip the comment section or you'll see where the "technologically illiterate yet happy to pontificate apple fanboy" stereotype comes.
- solarkraft 8y agoexcept this is more about politics than technology
- platinumrad 8y agoWhen I made this comment the top comments on the article were about how opening up the iMessage protocol would cause it to become riddled with security vulnerabilities.
- wilsonnb 8y agoYeah I see no reason why Apple would want to do that. Which is probably why Microsoft said they would like to do it.
- jacksmith21006 8y agoNever happen.
- dawnerd 8y agoDidn't stop them from bringing itunes or icloud. I've just found it weird apple hasn't had a web version at least.
- threeseed 8y agoiTunes and iCloud were required for iPhones to work with Windows. Otherwise you couldn't sync music or contacts etc. Having a Windows iMessages app isn't required for anything.
- jacksmith21006 8y agoVery different world today. Back then windows was a lot more important
- shadowfacts 8y agoHow could you do a web version of iMessages without losing end-to-end encryption?
- r32a_ 8y agoIt will never happen, iMessage is one of the network effects of Apple/iPhone ecosystem.
- ergomarky 8y agoThis would still encourage people to buy iPhones though, it's just a bridge between Your Phone (the app on Windows in question) and your iPhone so you can reply to (i)Messages on windows as you do a Mac. Don't really see why they would be vehemently against this.
- threeseed 8y agoApple makes a lot more money from Macs than iPhones. And along with Continuity is a key pillar of the "Apple products work better together" marketing message.
- vecter 8y agohttps://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of-apple/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-re... Apple makes way more money from iPhones than Macs.
- shadowfacts 8y agoNot by a long shot they don't. In Q1 2018, Apple made nine times more money from iPhones than it did from Macs [1]. [1]: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1_FY18_Data_Summary.pdf https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1_FY18_Data_Summary.pdf
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y agoThat's one more reason to buy a Mac, and when people buy a new machine they usually factor in several reasons.
- booleandilemma 8y agoCouldn’t you say the same about Microsoft Office? And yet it’s on Apple computers.
- bitwize 8y agoWell, Apple has a port of all of OS X above the Unix layer to NT lying around somewhere. iMessage should be a relative doddle to bring to Windows.
- phs318u 8y agoAre you referring to Yellow Box and Rhapsody? http://roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F75-455A-9681-F186A4365805.html http://roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F75-45...
- bitwize 8y agoI'm referring to the updated version of this Apple is sure to have lying around. Apple has deployed apps (Safari, iTunes?) based on a Win32 Cocoa port before. You'd be crazy to think they don't keep Cocoa/Nextstep for Win32 kicking around, even if they never release it.
- dzonga 8y agoPersonally I find WhatsApp having a better UX than iMessage. now the worry is about data being siphoned by Zucker zucker. I can hardly search for an old text on iMessage on mac or iPhone. have stopped using it entirely.
- abritinthebay 8y agoWhat are you talking about? It has search built in - I can and do regularly search for stuff from years ago.
- Improvotter 8y agoHowever much I'd like this to happen, it'll never ever happen.
- satysin 8y agoI am surprised Apple have not extended iMessage to a web interface that relies on the iPhone iMessage app to do all the work in the same way that WhatsApp Web works. You don't lose E2EE, you keep the requirement of having an iPhone, etc. Sure they have the macOS desktop iMessage app but a web interface would be great for iPhone owners who don't use macOS of which there are many. They could easily wrap such a web service up in Electron just like WhatsApp does for their Windows Store desktop app. I guess Apple relying on Electron isn't likely to happen but there is no reason they couldn't over-engineer it with their own embedded browser solution. They already have the technology as it is used for iTunes on Windows (which, interestingly, is now available in the Windows Store via Desktop Bridge).
- kitsunesoba 8y agoApple using Electron is extremely unlikely. They’re more likely to port iMessage to Windows with the Windows port of the Objective-C runtime + Cocoa + Foundation (a sort of modernized YellowBox[1]) they used to port iTunes and previously Safari to Windows. The browser used in the Windows version of iTunes is WebKit, not Chromium. 1: http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/apple/os_pictures/ybnt4/ http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/apple/os_pictures/ybn...
- r00fus 8y agoSecurity is one reason they stay away from web access. If you read through Apple's security white papers it's pretty clear that iMessage security would be gravely impacted by the attack surface that comes with web access.
- alexkavon 8y agoThis isn't a big deal really. However Microsoft wants the real secret sauce. They either want A: Apple to build a client in Windows with C#. Or possibly B: wants to able to allow swift compilation on Windows thus opening the door wide open for app ecosystem. You think probably not but then again WSL.
- dpark 8y agoMicrosoft has literally tens of thousands of engineers capable of building the client for Windows if Apple will let them. I am certain that no one on this integration project cares whether Apple actually does the work, only whether they allow it. Disclosure: Microsoft employee, but nowhere near this group.
- alexkavon 8y agoThat's essentially what I'm saying. There is a longer game at play. I only state they probably want Apple to do it because they helped Apple port iTunes to the Windows Store. It's not a play for iMessage but a longer play.
- dpark 8y agoI’m not sure what the longer play is or how it ties into Apple building in C# or Swift on Windows, neither of which are a prerequisite to iMessage on Windows.
- alexkavon 8y agoWell, if Apple builds an app in C# then they would probably want to use their OS to do so. In order to do that they would need Visual Studio for Mac which would allow them to work with Apple to improve those tools and open doors for developing C# applications on MacOS as well as compiling those Applications for MacOS. If Apple were to write a client in Swift or ObjC then it would do the reverse and potentially open up applications to be compiled for and run on Windows. This allowing easier porting of apps from MacOS to Windows and helping eliminate their "lack of apps in the Windows store" problem. Cross functionality is Microsoft's current game. How many different ways they can achieve it is up to your imagination.
- mcphage 8y agoI'm sure Microsoft would also love to work with Nintendo to bring Mario and Zelda to Windows as well.
- ericzawo 8y agoI know it won't ever happen, but releasing it would really help reframe Apple's increasingly more obvious unfair shake it gives its customers.