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Google Wants to Convince Apple to Make Messages Compatible

Google has launched a high-profile publicity campaign to persuade Apple to adopt RCS, a messaging protocol.

 

RCS is the successor to the current SMS and MMS standards and is said to improve compatibility between Apple’s iMessage and Google’s range of messaging services. So it is striking that Google is now starting a publicity campaign that Apple must get through public pressure to support the standard in iMessage (now renamed to Messages). With the hashtag #GetTheMessage, the tech giant hopes users will make their displeasure clear to Apple.

But what is it really about? In its simplest and most recognizable form: the color of speech bubbles. iMessage, the most popular messaging service in the United States, uses Apple’s proprietary protocol to send messages between different iPhones, with all the necessary encryption, video support, and more. When an iPhone receives a message from Android, it falls back to SMS and MMS, an older standard with less functionality. Those messages also come in the dreaded “green” speech bubble instead of the blue one that comes standard on iOS, a sign of inferior status to people who care about this sort of thing.

Google has been trying for some time to get Apple to adopt the RCS protocol for cross-platform messages. According to the tech giant, that could solve a lot of compatibility problems. Google itself has built extensions to the RCS standard, which also support a large part of the functions that iMessage already has.

The chance seems very small that Apple will be impressed by the campaign. Much of its business model revolves around smooth communication, but only within the Apple ecosystem. The current situation may subtly keep users with its own brand, as iMessage allows for seamless communication with all those other iPhone users, but not with Android.

It must also be said that in the United States, iMessage is also simply the market leader for messaging. In Europe, that is rather WhatsApp. Google isn’t the leader anywhere, as it has a slew of messaging and video services. Since the inception of iMessage, it has released thirteen, which it narrowly reduced to six. The idea that Google is now trying to teach Apple about interoperability and standards sounds a bit desperate. However, Google has a lot more to gain from this than Apple.

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