The EU's Digital Market Act prohibits Apple and other tech giants from favoring their own systems.

The long fight to make Apple’s iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union’s Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that “gatekeepers” not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others.

    • @tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.ukEnglish
      27•2 years ago

      I presume apple users do occasionally…

      I guess this is a way for google to force apple to open the protocol since they can’t just open it in the EU, so it affects the US too. But the EU don’t have to listen to google… if imessage is such a minor player they may just leave it alone.

      • @narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
        9•2 years ago

        We use it when WhatsApp has server problems every once in a while or for a round of GamePigeon.

        Ironically, in Europe you’d be “missing out” on most group conversations if you’d insist on using iMessage, as most of your buddies probably have an Android phone with WhatsApp installed.

      • JustEnoughDucksEnglish
        1•2 years ago

        Not really.

        For example, in Sweden, probably half as high of a percentage of people have iPhones as the US and yet everyone uses Facebook messenger and whatsapp, at least when I studied there 5 years ago.

      • unalivejoyEnglish
        1•2 years ago

        iMessage technically isn’t SMS. It just supports it as an additional protocol. On Android, Facebook Messenger and Signal behaves similarly (because android lets apps become the default SMS handler).

        • shackledEnglish
          2•2 years ago

          Just FYI Signal no longer supports SMS. They decided it “leads to confusion” and a partially secure app is not good enough. Led me to stop donating to them.

    • @Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      2•2 years ago

      No. But we have the same reliance now on WhatsApp as the US does with iMessage.

      I’d love to see RCS become the norm so I can ditch WhatsApp.