iOS, the App Retailer, and Safari are all gatekeeper providers within the EU, as is Apple. That’s in response to the area’s first gatekeeper determinations below the brand new Digital Markets Act (DMA) laws just a few months in the past. Importantly, iMessage shouldn’t be one among them. Comparatively, Meta’s WhatsApp and Fb Messenger chat apps are gatekeepers.
However the EU has started investigating whether iMessage qualifies as a gatekeeper, asking companies some uncommon questions alongside the way in which. Google partnered with the top carriers in Europe to strain the EU to rule iMessage as a gatekeeper. The investigation’s official conclusions received’t be out till February, however phrase already obtained out that the EU has tentatively discovered that iMessage doesn’t qualify as a gatekeeper.
As a European, I’m not stunned. We don’t have a blue vs. inexperienced bubbles downside over right here. As a longtime iPhone person, I depend on WhatsApp probably the most, even when texting different fellow iPhone customers. Nonetheless, if the EU decides the iMessage isn’t a gatekeeper, it’ll be an enormous deal for Apple, Google, and different rivals.
Apple simply accepted defeat to Google’s PR marketing campaign by saying that the iPhone will help RCS messaging. It additionally delivered a blow to Google, so it’s extra of a draw. The RCS support coming to the iPhone won’t be Google’s RCS. As a substitute, Apple is just supporting the GSMA RCS customary that comes with wealthy communication options however not encryption. Additionally, the bubble colours received’t change.
Google can’t do something about it. But when the EU had been to deem iMessage as a gatekeeper, possibly Google may ask Apple to verify iMessages work with Google Messages, aka its RCS model. Not less than in Europe, that’s, the place the DMA is in impact.
Per Bloomberg, the EU has tentatively concluded that iMessage isn’t fashionable sufficient with enterprise customers to warrant being designated as a gatekeeper service:
As a way to fall below the scope of the principles, a service should be deemed an ‘essential gateway’ for enterprise customers. EU enforcers now take into account this isn’t the case for iMessage, in response to the folks.
As a European, I don’t recall a single occasion the place a enterprise wished to keep up a correspondence over iMessage. Not that I’d have executed it. The extra seemingly factor to occur is to obtain unsolicited messages over WhatsApp from companies, during which case the courteous factor to do is block them to hell and again till you want them. That’s, WhatsApp is well the go-to chat service for a lot of companies.
The EU will end its investigations in February. By March, the tech giants which might be gatekeepers or function gatekeeper providers should implement adjustments that encourage competitors and defend buyer privateness and selection. Apart from Apple’s iMessage, the EU can be Microsoft’s Bing, Edge, and Promoting providers.
Ought to these early findings on iMessage stay unchanged, Apple’s default iPhone chat app is not going to should work with opponents. I’ll remind you the way annoying the complete means of making iMessage compatible with third-party chat apps can be. We are going to see that occur with WhatsApp and Fb Messenger in March.
On that observe, I’ll reiterate that I don’t need interoperability between smartphone chat apps. Whereas different DMA provisions are warranted, chat interoperability is among the worst doable concepts EU regulators may have provide you with.
