Apple douses rumor of impending iMessage release for Android
Apple recently poured cold water on rumors claiming iMessage would see introduction on Google's Android platform, potentially at this week's Worldwide Developers Conference, saying the messaging service is worth more as an exclusive first-party feature.
Citing an unnamed senior Apple executive, Re/code's Walt Mossberg reports the company has no intention of expanding iMessage or the Messages app beyond its own ecosystem, at least not anytime soon.
Apple said an expansion of services is not necessary because its user base of one billion active devices is large enough to support ongoing studies into artificial intelligence, a relatively new area of focus for the company.
During Monday's WWDC keynote, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi revealed work on a method of gathering data from users without infringing on their privacy. Called differential privacy, the method uses hashing, subsampling and noise injection to gain insight into mass trends, but keep individual user data anonymized. Federighi said the information gleaned from the process might be applied to QuickType recommendations, for example.
The unnamed executive also said keeping iMessage an Apple exclusive helps boost sales of supporting devices, which in turn promotes platform stickiness. As Mossberg noted, Apple has seen great success in marketing proprietary hardware and software integrations competitors are unable to match. With the exception of revenue generating services like iTunes and Apple Music, releasing a product like Messages for Android could undermine those efforts.
Perhaps wishful thinking on the part of have-nots, Apple has for years been rumored to launch iMessage services on non-Apple operating systems. Speculation of an impending release for Android resurfaced earlier this month ahead of WWDC.
Citing an unnamed senior Apple executive, Re/code's Walt Mossberg reports the company has no intention of expanding iMessage or the Messages app beyond its own ecosystem, at least not anytime soon.
Apple said an expansion of services is not necessary because its user base of one billion active devices is large enough to support ongoing studies into artificial intelligence, a relatively new area of focus for the company.
During Monday's WWDC keynote, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi revealed work on a method of gathering data from users without infringing on their privacy. Called differential privacy, the method uses hashing, subsampling and noise injection to gain insight into mass trends, but keep individual user data anonymized. Federighi said the information gleaned from the process might be applied to QuickType recommendations, for example.
The unnamed executive also said keeping iMessage an Apple exclusive helps boost sales of supporting devices, which in turn promotes platform stickiness. As Mossberg noted, Apple has seen great success in marketing proprietary hardware and software integrations competitors are unable to match. With the exception of revenue generating services like iTunes and Apple Music, releasing a product like Messages for Android could undermine those efforts.
Perhaps wishful thinking on the part of have-nots, Apple has for years been rumored to launch iMessage services on non-Apple operating systems. Speculation of an impending release for Android resurfaced earlier this month ahead of WWDC.
Comments
Today, I'm forced to go elsewhere - Whatsapp, Telegram....
But that is changing. More and more people are using alternatives to sms, which means that Apple’s program is no longer a viable solution for many contacts and it will only get worse if Apple doesn’t go cross-platform. It becomes inconsequent if people stop using it frequently, there will be no stickiness, quite the opposite, it will become frustrating.
How is it possible that Apple doesn’t see that?
At least if they tried to go cross-platform they could get other people to notice Apple’s ecosystem advantage through integration, and they could get some financial reward through something like Apple Pay for money transfer or services payments inside Messages.
I suspect that when the new iPhone is announced later this year, iMessage will have a significant enhancement -- available to current iPhones, but best exploited by the latest iPhone ...
Waiting for the other iMessage shoe to drop!
Oh well, WhatsApp stays on my iPhone then.
I disagree. While most people used SMS, there were many alternatives, including AIM, Yahoo, Skype, etc. That were and still are cross-platform. Just as WhatsApp, Kik, Facebook are today. These are all still cross-platform and still work on iPhone. So there's no reason why Apple has to worry about user leaving their platform.
People seem to have missed just what Apple is doing... They've made Messages extensible ... which opens the door in the future to possibly support 3rd party messaging protocols. On the Mac, Messages allows me to chat via Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, iMessage ... and even text via Continuity through my iPhone. Kim, WhatsApp, Facebook etc, could all very well build iMessage apps to support their protocols.
If you want to send a message to a friend without using SMS you can just use Siri, since they opened it up to messaging Apps.
I don't think Corp America would stop buying Macs if iMessage was on a PC, but I do think it would lock down corporate sales and encourage productivity apps to integrate iMessage into their workflows vs the landscape of Skype/Slack/Jabber/Spark/Lync
We are in the age of the smartphone with new social habits. SMS is losing ground rapidly for obvious reasons and Apple can’t count on SMS as a conduit for cross platform communication for much longer. People will choose something that enables easy communication with most contacts and Messages won’t be it because 60-80% are on another platform.
From what I understand iMessage extensions weren’t thought for that kind of functionality, they are supposed to work on established communications through iMessage, not to enable new messaging protocols.
Wrong! The reason iMessage preferred is security. Fck all other message apps which I never trust to send my sensitive attachments or info!
I must be missing something but, isn't that how it works now? Our family "group" includes both iPhone and non iPhone users Yet, we are all able to message each other via iMessage and/or SMS. Only those without an iPhone show up with a green bubble.