7 ms·

> I wonder what made them take this path? it was literally an email that surface on the Epic store litigation, where one Apple exec says (quote from memory) "W

> I wonder what made them take this path? it was literally an email that surface on the Epic store litigation, where one Apple exec says (quote from memory) "We can't have facetime for android because that will remove the barrier for families to buy Android phones for their kids" So it will be crappy and have TONS of limitations (wouldn't be surprised it it only work with one apple device hosting) because it is only for legal excuse reasons.

lurkerasdfh8 5y ago
apple PR is running around downvoting facts :D
bottled_poe 5y ago
> We can't have facetime for android because that will remove the barrier for families to buy Android phones for their kids I might be missing something... Is there something in this that is illegal?
- infofarmer 5y ago
  It seems to violate various competition laws depending on jurisdiction.
  - yoz-y 5y ago
    Does it? One thing going for this is that Apple is huge and iMessage has a massive amount of users. But on the other hand forcing developers to support all platforms is just not realistic.
- lurkerasdfh8 5y ago
  > illegal besides being immoral and a literal F-U to your consumers, it can bring anti trust cases when you are as big as Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in But other than that, well, just go celebrate your $2 gain on your APPL stocks despite the fact you were prohibited to call 50% of your friends just so someone couldn't save a few bucks when buying a phone for their teenage kid. Go you!
  - nixy 5y ago
    To be honest, it is more a F-U to your competitors' customers than to your own. I don't get why Apple creating a feature for their own ecosystem has to be made available to other ecosystems as well. It's not like Face Time is the only video calling solution out there.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      The way Android users complain about the lack of Apple iMessage and Apple FaceTime on their phones, you'd be forgiven for questioning whether Android had any messaging or video calling features.
      - vetinari 5y ago
        I will tell you a secret: it's not Android users who complain about the lack of iMessage or Facetime. Most of them are not even aware of their existence. They are using Whataspp, or Viber, or whatever and go on with their lives.
    - fauigerzigerk 5y ago
      >To be honest, it is more a F-U to your competitors' customers than to your own. Why? As an iPhone user, I am the one who paid for the development of FaceTime, but I can't use it because communications tools require network effects that FaceTime doesn't have. I can't even use it with my wife. I'm not saying it's somehow illegitimate or even illegal for Apple to do this, but what it tells me is that Apple cares more about hurting competitors than about providing a useful service to its own paying customers.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    I think it's funny that Android users are so angry with Apple for not releasing iMessage and FaceTime for Android. How dare Apple not make their communications platforms even more dominant! Not having iMessage on Android is immoral! Not having FaceTime on Android is "a literal F-U" to their customers! I think it's funny because Apple left a decade-long opening for Google to build equally good Android alternatives to iMessage and FaceTime and dominate in cross-platform communication. Instead, twelve chat platforms later, I'm not entirely sure if Google has finally released something that won't be superseded next year.
psanford 5y ago
That email was about iMessage, not FaceTime: https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/22375128/apple-imessage-android-ecosystem-lock-in-epic-games-filings-app-store-dispute https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/22375128/apple-imessage-an...
ezfe 5y ago
Yes, it is only available to invite others. You cannot start a FaceTime call from the web
samstave 5y ago
Facetime already has a lot of limitations . While I do love it, it's very data heavy - have you ever looked at how much data it consumes? Also, it's a fn batteryand heat hog. It freaking makes all my phones hot and uses tons of power. You can't easily record a call (unless I am unaware) it's hard to take screenshots, and you can't take a shot of just the other party, it always will have your personal view in a corner. The call logs suck. And obviously the walked garden. I'm typing this on android, but I also have an iPhone on me that's wifi only such that I can facetime and imessages. However imessage is broken as well: I can text people but some people can't text me back. I also have a google voice account and somehow these three platforms have confused the system, as messages constantly get lost ,,,

lurkerasdfh8 5y ago

apple PR is running around downvoting facts :D

bottled_poe 5y ago

> We can't have facetime for android because that will remove the barrier for families to buy Android phones for their kids I might be missing something... Is there something in this that is illegal?

infofarmer 5y ago
It seems to violate various competition laws depending on jurisdiction.
- yoz-y 5y ago
  Does it? One thing going for this is that Apple is huge and iMessage has a massive amount of users. But on the other hand forcing developers to support all platforms is just not realistic.
lurkerasdfh8 5y ago
> illegal besides being immoral and a literal F-U to your consumers, it can bring anti trust cases when you are as big as Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in But other than that, well, just go celebrate your $2 gain on your APPL stocks despite the fact you were prohibited to call 50% of your friends just so someone couldn't save a few bucks when buying a phone for their teenage kid. Go you!
- nixy 5y ago
  To be honest, it is more a F-U to your competitors' customers than to your own. I don't get why Apple creating a feature for their own ecosystem has to be made available to other ecosystems as well. It's not like Face Time is the only video calling solution out there.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    The way Android users complain about the lack of Apple iMessage and Apple FaceTime on their phones, you'd be forgiven for questioning whether Android had any messaging or video calling features.
    - vetinari 5y ago
      I will tell you a secret: it's not Android users who complain about the lack of iMessage or Facetime. Most of them are not even aware of their existence. They are using Whataspp, or Viber, or whatever and go on with their lives.
  - fauigerzigerk 5y ago
    >To be honest, it is more a F-U to your competitors' customers than to your own. Why? As an iPhone user, I am the one who paid for the development of FaceTime, but I can't use it because communications tools require network effects that FaceTime doesn't have. I can't even use it with my wife. I'm not saying it's somehow illegitimate or even illegal for Apple to do this, but what it tells me is that Apple cares more about hurting competitors than about providing a useful service to its own paying customers.
- simondotau 5y ago
  I think it's funny that Android users are so angry with Apple for not releasing iMessage and FaceTime for Android. How dare Apple not make their communications platforms even more dominant! Not having iMessage on Android is immoral! Not having FaceTime on Android is "a literal F-U" to their customers! I think it's funny because Apple left a decade-long opening for Google to build equally good Android alternatives to iMessage and FaceTime and dominate in cross-platform communication. Instead, twelve chat platforms later, I'm not entirely sure if Google has finally released something that won't be superseded next year.

psanford 5y ago

That email was about iMessage, not FaceTime: https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/22375128/apple-imessage-android-ecosystem-lock-in-epic-games-filings-app-store-dispute https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/9/22375128/apple-imessage-an...

ezfe 5y ago

Yes, it is only available to invite others. You cannot start a FaceTime call from the web

samstave 5y ago

Facetime already has a lot of limitations . While I do love it, it's very data heavy - have you ever looked at how much data it consumes? Also, it's a fn batteryand heat hog. It freaking makes all my phones hot and uses tons of power. You can't easily record a call (unless I am unaware) it's hard to take screenshots, and you can't take a shot of just the other party, it always will have your personal view in a corner. The call logs suck. And obviously the walked garden. I'm typing this on android, but I also have an iPhone on me that's wifi only such that I can facetime and imessages. However imessage is broken as well: I can text people but some people can't text me back. I also have a google voice account and somehow these three platforms have confused the system, as messages constantly get lost ,,,