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I'm surprised that Apple hasn't made an official iMessage app for Android. After all, there is Apple Music for Android and iCloud for Windows.

dewey 6y ago
Not really surprising. iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not. The latter two services can make more service revenue if available on more platforms while iMessage is not adding to that.
- Reason077 6y ago
  > "iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not." Does it really, though? I'm an iPhone user but have friends and family who have moved to Android without too much drama. Our chats just moved to other messaging apps with barely a second thought. If we lived in a world where WhatsApp and other cross-platform messaging apps didn't exist, then there would be a strong lock-in effect. But as it stands the iMessage lock-in is weak, at best.
  - alxlu 6y ago
    It’s managed to lock me in. I’ve been trying to completely move off of the Apple ecosystem for the last year or so. I think for a lot of people (including myself) there’s going to be a few holdouts that only use iMessage and don’t want to switch and I’m not going to stop communicating with people I enjoy interacting with over technology preferences.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      SMS works on all phones
      - alxlu 6y ago
        It doesn't work when people have email based iMessage accounts. It also doesn't work well for sending larger images/videos, not to mention the other random niceties that come with other modern messaging apps (e.g. read messages, text effects, being seamlessly synced across all devices, etc.)
  - dewey 6y ago
    Really depends on where you are located. In the US the lock-in effect is very strong while in Europe or countries where there's a lot of Telegram/WhatsApp usage it's obviously lower.
ggoo 6y ago
They would never. iMessage incompatibility is a feature which drives user to buy iPhones.
- colordrops 6y ago
  Liked "They would never. iMessage incompatibility is a feature which drives user to buy iPhones."
  - nkrisc 6y ago
    Speaking of, I always wished the Android messaging app could just parse those messages and show the little like icon or whatever on the last matching message I sent.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - giancarlostoro 6y ago
      What's funny to me is in Signal you can react to messages, but it still doesn't interpret iOS messages as such...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bredren 6y ago
  Wasn’t it originally going to be an open protocol, though? I thought the decision to lock it to iOS devices came later.
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    I think that was only FaceTime
  - eyesee 6y ago
    That was FaceTime.
sys_64738 6y ago
Seem to recall Apple planned to make iMessages an open standard at one point. Not clear what happened next.
- wyxuan 6y ago
  It was FaceTime actually, and a protracted legal battle with a patent troll stopped it in its tracks
  - valuearb 6y ago
    Pretty sure it was both and patent troll stopped both.
- czzr 6y ago
  It was FaceTime and there was a patent issue.
scarface74 6y ago
Apple Music for Android is not about Android users who want to buy Apple Music. If you have a family with mixed iPhone and Android devices, if you can’t use Apple Music with all of your devices, you will probably use Spotify. I’m sure Apple is glad to take money from Android users who want to buy Apple Music, but there are relatively few people who fall in that category. iCloud/iTunes is available for Windows because most people who have iPhones (and iPods before) have Windows. There is no financial reason for Apple to make iMessage for Android.
floatingatoll 6y ago
iMessage for Android would immediately be abused to spam iMessage users, something that’s nearly impossible to do today. Apple issues server-side hardware bans any time an Apple device sends spam via iMessage, which makes it stunningly expensive to spam iMessage users - but since Android is an ‘open’ platform, no such protections are possible to require or enforce there, as they can simply be rooted around. I expect Apple would release iMessage for Android in a heartbeat if the effort were invested to make it truly user-proof with crypto-locked bootloaders and proper defenses against rooting. However, that day is not today, and that day seems unlikely to ever occur for the wider Android ecosystem. So iMessage likely won’t either. (Footnote: This thread and its usual focus on “iMessage should be open to non-Apple hardware” has been repeated on HN many times a year for the past several years. No one has yet offered an alternative solution to “identifiable Apple hardware only, with hardware bans for anyone that spams” that would as effectively protect iMessage against spammer. Especially before the first message is sent, and without heuristic false positives.)
- Reason077 6y ago
  How does WhatsApp deal with spam? It doesn't seem to be much of a problem there, in my experience. If I ever get spam text messages they invariably come via SMS.
  - mvanbaak 6y ago
    It doesnt
- erohead 6y ago
  Stunnyingly expensive = $20 iPod touch from ebay? Which can also be jailbroken and 'rooted' very easily.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
xyst 6y ago
Years ago, this was actually on the roadmap. Steve Jobs presented iMessage/FaceTime as a cross platform messaging platform. But thanks to patent trolls, this idea never materialized. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114
- Atomskun 6y ago
  Stop spreading your lies. What you link only applies to FaceTime.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    Pretty sure both were P2P at the time.
  - dang 6y ago
    Personal attacks will get you banned here, so please omit those. Your comment would be just fine without the first sentence. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
ehsankia 6y ago
I'm honestly more surprised that Apple Music is on Android. It actually is the only service they have on the Play Store, other than their transfer app. No Safari, no Apple TV+, no Maps, nothing.

dewey 6y ago

Not really surprising. iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not. The latter two services can make more service revenue if available on more platforms while iMessage is not adding to that.

Reason077 6y ago
> "iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not." Does it really, though? I'm an iPhone user but have friends and family who have moved to Android without too much drama. Our chats just moved to other messaging apps with barely a second thought. If we lived in a world where WhatsApp and other cross-platform messaging apps didn't exist, then there would be a strong lock-in effect. But as it stands the iMessage lock-in is weak, at best.
- alxlu 6y ago
  It’s managed to lock me in. I’ve been trying to completely move off of the Apple ecosystem for the last year or so. I think for a lot of people (including myself) there’s going to be a few holdouts that only use iMessage and don’t want to switch and I’m not going to stop communicating with people I enjoy interacting with over technology preferences.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    SMS works on all phones
    - alxlu 6y ago
      It doesn't work when people have email based iMessage accounts. It also doesn't work well for sending larger images/videos, not to mention the other random niceties that come with other modern messaging apps (e.g. read messages, text effects, being seamlessly synced across all devices, etc.)
- dewey 6y ago
  Really depends on where you are located. In the US the lock-in effect is very strong while in Europe or countries where there's a lot of Telegram/WhatsApp usage it's obviously lower.

ggoo 6y ago

They would never. iMessage incompatibility is a feature which drives user to buy iPhones.

colordrops 6y ago
Liked "They would never. iMessage incompatibility is a feature which drives user to buy iPhones."
- nkrisc 6y ago
  Speaking of, I always wished the Android messaging app could just parse those messages and show the little like icon or whatever on the last matching message I sent.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    What's funny to me is in Signal you can react to messages, but it still doesn't interpret iOS messages as such...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
bredren 6y ago
Wasn’t it originally going to be an open protocol, though? I thought the decision to lock it to iOS devices came later.
- kalleboo 6y ago
  I think that was only FaceTime
- eyesee 6y ago
  That was FaceTime.

sys_64738 6y ago

Seem to recall Apple planned to make iMessages an open standard at one point. Not clear what happened next.

wyxuan 6y ago
It was FaceTime actually, and a protracted legal battle with a patent troll stopped it in its tracks
- valuearb 6y ago
  Pretty sure it was both and patent troll stopped both.
czzr 6y ago
It was FaceTime and there was a patent issue.

scarface74 6y ago

Apple Music for Android is not about Android users who want to buy Apple Music. If you have a family with mixed iPhone and Android devices, if you can’t use Apple Music with all of your devices, you will probably use Spotify. I’m sure Apple is glad to take money from Android users who want to buy Apple Music, but there are relatively few people who fall in that category. iCloud/iTunes is available for Windows because most people who have iPhones (and iPods before) have Windows. There is no financial reason for Apple to make iMessage for Android.

floatingatoll 6y ago

iMessage for Android would immediately be abused to spam iMessage users, something that’s nearly impossible to do today. Apple issues server-side hardware bans any time an Apple device sends spam via iMessage, which makes it stunningly expensive to spam iMessage users - but since Android is an ‘open’ platform, no such protections are possible to require or enforce there, as they can simply be rooted around. I expect Apple would release iMessage for Android in a heartbeat if the effort were invested to make it truly user-proof with crypto-locked bootloaders and proper defenses against rooting. However, that day is not today, and that day seems unlikely to ever occur for the wider Android ecosystem. So iMessage likely won’t either. (Footnote: This thread and its usual focus on “iMessage should be open to non-Apple hardware” has been repeated on HN many times a year for the past several years. No one has yet offered an alternative solution to “identifiable Apple hardware only, with hardware bans for anyone that spams” that would as effectively protect iMessage against spammer. Especially before the first message is sent, and without heuristic false positives.)

Reason077 6y ago
How does WhatsApp deal with spam? It doesn't seem to be much of a problem there, in my experience. If I ever get spam text messages they invariably come via SMS.
- mvanbaak 6y ago
  It doesnt
erohead 6y ago
Stunnyingly expensive = $20 iPod touch from ebay? Which can also be jailbroken and 'rooted' very easily.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

xyst 6y ago

Years ago, this was actually on the roadmap. Steve Jobs presented iMessage/FaceTime as a cross platform messaging platform. But thanks to patent trolls, this idea never materialized. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114

Atomskun 6y ago
Stop spreading your lies. What you link only applies to FaceTime.
- valuearb 6y ago
  Pretty sure both were P2P at the time.
- dang 6y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned here, so please omit those. Your comment would be just fine without the first sentence. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ehsankia 6y ago

I'm honestly more surprised that Apple Music is on Android. It actually is the only service they have on the Play Store, other than their transfer app. No Safari, no Apple TV+, no Maps, nothing.