Google Messages Failed to Create Conversation Please Try Again Later voice

Please stop kicking our butts so badly —

Afterward ruining Android messaging, Google says iMessage is too powerful

Google failed to compete with iMessage for years. At present it wants Apple tree to play prissy.

Google took to Twitter this weekend to mutter that iMessage is but also darn influential with today's kids. The company was responding to a Wall Street Periodical written report detailing the lock-in and social pressure level Apple'southward walled garden is creating among US teens. iMessage brands texts from iPhone users with a blue background and gives them additional features, while texts from Android phones are shown in green and just have the base SMS feature set up. According to the article, "Teens and higher students said they dread the ostracism that comes with a dark-green text. The social pressure is palpable, with some reporting being ostracized or singled out after switching away from iPhones." Google feels this is a problem.

"iMessage should not do good from bullying," the official Android Twitter account wrote. "Texting should bring us together, and the solution exists. Allow's fix this equally one industry." Google SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer chimed in, besides, proverb, "Apple's iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a mode to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to set up this."

The "solution" Google is pushing hither is RCS, or Rich Communication Services, a GSMA standard from 2008 that has slowly gained traction equally an upgrade to SMS. RCS adds typing indicators, user presence, and better image sharing to carrier messaging. Information technology is a 14-year-old carrier standard, though, then it lacks many of the features you would want from a mod messaging service, like end-to-end encryption and support for not-telephone devices. Google tries to band-aid over the aging standard with its "Google Messaging" customer, but the effect is a lot of clunky solutions that don't add up to a good modern messaging service.

Since RCS replaces SMS, Google has been on a campaign to go the manufacture to make the upgrade. After years of protesting, the US carriers are all onboard, and in that location is some uptake among the international carriers, as well. The biggest holdout is Apple tree, which merely supports SMS through iMessage.

Overstate / Apple'due south greenish-versus-bluish bubble explainer from its website.

Apple tree

Apple hasn't always publicly shot downwardly the idea of adding RCS to iMessage, but thank you to documents revealed in the Epic five. Apple instance, we know the visitor views iMessage lock-in as a valuable weapon. Bringing RCS to iMessage and making communication easier with Android users would only assist to weaken Apple'southward walled garden, and the company has said it doesn't want that.

In the US, iPhones are more than popular with young adults than ever. As The Wall Street Journal notes, "Among US consumers, 40% use iPhones, but among those aged 18 to 24, more than seventy% are iPhone users." Information technology credits Apple tree's lock-in with apps similar iMessage for this success.

Reaping what you sow

Google clearly views iMessage'due south popularity every bit a problem, and the company is hoping this public-shaming campaign volition get Apple to change its mind on RCS. But Google giving other companies advice on a messaging strategy is a laughable idea since Google probably has the least credibility of whatsoever tech visitor when information technology comes to messaging services. If the visitor really wants to do something about iMessage, it should try competing with it.

As we recently detailed in a 25,000-discussion article, Google's messaging history is one of constant production startups and shutdowns. Thank you to a lack of product focus or any kind of peak-downward mandate from Google's CEO, no division is really "in charge" of messaging. As a result, the company has released 13 half-hearted messaging products since iMessage launched in 2011. If Google wants to await to someone to blame for iMessage's authorization, it should first with itself, since it has continually sabotaged and abased its ain plans to brand an iMessage competitor.

Messaging is important, and even if it isn't straight monetizable, a dominant messaging app has existent, tangible benefits for an ecosystem. The rest of the industry understood this years ago. Facebook paid $22 billion to buy WhatsApp in 2014 and took the app from 450 million users to 2 billion users. Along with Facebook Messenger, Facebook has two dominant messaging platforms today, specially internationally. Salesforce paid $27 billion for Slack in 2020, and Tencent'due south WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, is pulling in 1.two billion users and yearly revenues of $5.5 billion. Snapchat is upwardly to a $67 billion market cap, and Telegram is getting $xl billion valuations from investors. Google keeps trying ideas in this marketplace, just information technology never makes an investment that is anywhere shut to the contest.

Folio: i two Next →

walkerhaddly.blogspot.com

Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/after-ruining-android-messaging-google-says-imessage-is-too-powerful/

Share this post