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If iMessage is a walled garden, then pretty much every other messaging system is also a walled garden since the death of XMPP. Can anyone build a a third party

If iMessage is a walled garden, then pretty much every other messaging system is also a walled garden since the death of XMPP. Can anyone build a a third party client for WhatsApp or any other popular messaging system in 2020? Im unaware of any. In fact the top result for “third party whatsapp client” is “Use a third party WhatsApp client and be banned for life”. [0] Hardly the behavior of an open system. What your real complaint is that there isn’t an client for a nonApple operating system. It’s reasonable to not want to switch OSes, but there are many apps that are iOS exclusive, as there are many android exclusive apps, but I wouldn’t call them “walled gardens”. Also, iMessage doesn’t make money. It an e2e encryption app with sms support. Because it’s provided by Apple, a company that famously makes money on hardware rather than services, there’s no incentive to mine your (and your connections’) data for profit, like say WhatsApp, or the others, so it is incorrect to claim they are “using & dividing people’s social connections for profit”. If anyone is dividing their connections based on iMessage, it’s your friends. [0] https://www.cultofmac.com/314343/use-a-third-party-whatsapp-client-and-you-could-be-banned-for-life/amp/ https://www.cultofmac.com/314343/use-a-third-party-whatsapp-...

anoncake 7y ago
> If iMessage is a walled garden, then pretty much every other messaging system is also a walled garden since the death of XMPP. No whataboutism please.
miloignis 7y ago
A bit of a late reply, but there were a couple of points that I wanted to respond to. The first is that I'm not holding up WhatsApp as a great example! I use, promote, and have done a bit of development on Matrix, a true open messaging system. If XMPP or IRC floats your boat, I'm all for that as well, and I'll be able to chat with you over the XMPP and IRC Matrix bridges because all 3 are open systems. Second is how high the wall of your walled garden is matters, and matters a lot. Sure I can't write my own WhatsApp client, but I can download the app relatively easily on both Android and iOS. To communicate with people over iMessage I would have to buy a different phone and accept everything that comes with it (including the rest of the walled garden, appwise, oswise, etc). Finally, when I said they were doing it for profit I meant that the fact that iMessage only works with Apple products makes it such that if you want a good communication experience with your Apple-only friends you also have to buy into the ecosystem, and once you have it's hard to get out because you might lose those connections.

anoncake 7y ago

> If iMessage is a walled garden, then pretty much every other messaging system is also a walled garden since the death of XMPP. No whataboutism please.

miloignis 7y ago

A bit of a late reply, but there were a couple of points that I wanted to respond to. The first is that I'm not holding up WhatsApp as a great example! I use, promote, and have done a bit of development on Matrix, a true open messaging system. If XMPP or IRC floats your boat, I'm all for that as well, and I'll be able to chat with you over the XMPP and IRC Matrix bridges because all 3 are open systems. Second is how high the wall of your walled garden is matters, and matters a lot. Sure I can't write my own WhatsApp client, but I can download the app relatively easily on both Android and iOS. To communicate with people over iMessage I would have to buy a different phone and accept everything that comes with it (including the rest of the walled garden, appwise, oswise, etc). Finally, when I said they were doing it for profit I meant that the fact that iMessage only works with Apple products makes it such that if you want a good communication experience with your Apple-only friends you also have to buy into the ecosystem, and once you have it's hard to get out because you might lose those connections.