Could Apple be launching iMessage for Android?
For years, the idea of Apples iMessage messaging service coming to Android has felt like an impossible dream  but there may just be a solution. For years, the idea of Apples iMessage messaging service coming to Android has felt like an impossible dream. Tech writersmyself includedhave made all kinds of arguments for why Apples chat app shouldnt be exclusive to iOS and Mac. Weve made the business case, the marketing case, the moral case, and even the emotional case. So far, its all been in vain. For Apple, iMessage has been too strategically important for keeping people locked into the companys ecosystem. Apple executives have even acknowledged this in their own internal communications. And yet, the case for iMessage on Android is stronger now than its ever been. Bringing the chat service to other platforms would both cement Apples position as a privacy leader and relieve some antitrust pressure on the company. And at Apples Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote this week, Appleintentionally or notquietly laid out a blueprint for how it could happen. AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE, BETTER WITH APPLE  What got me thinking about iMessage again was Apples announcement of FaceTime for the web. When it launches later this year, the FaceTime web app will allow iOS and Mac users to chat via FaceTime with Windows and Android users for the first time. The web version will have lots of caveats, though. As CNBC reports, Windows and Android users wont be able to initiate FaceTime calls. Instead, theyll have to join a web link generated by an Apple device user. They also wont be able to use SharePlay, a forthcoming iOS 15 feature for bringing content from other apps into the video chat. Its likely that other iOS 15-specific features, such as Voice Isolation for reducing background noise and Spatial Audio for placing speakers in a 3D space, wont be available through the web app either. The implicit message is while Android and Windows users wont be left out of FaceTime calls, youll still need an Apple device for the best possible experience. Its easy to imagine iMessage following a similar playbook. Apple could, for instance, launch a bare-bones version of iMessage for Android with features like 25-person group texts, full-quality images, reactions, and end-to-end encryption. That way, iPhone users wouldnt suffer a degraded experience while texting with Android users. But for the full experience, youd still need an iPhone. In iOS 15, for instance, Apple will automatically indicate when youre texting someone whos enabled the new Focus mode that silences their notifications. Another feature called Shared with You will pull content from iMessage conversations into Apples other apps. (The best example: TV shows you share via iMessage can show up in a row inside Apples TV app.) Those features rely on iOS to function; a version of iMessage for Android would have to exclude them. The result would be a passable experience for Android users, but a better one for iPhone owners. One reason might be to ward off government scrutiny. In April, Epic Games disclosed Apples internal discussions of iMessage from 2013 as part of an antitrust lawsuit against the company. In those discussions, Apple executives Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller argued against bringing iMessage to Android because it would remove an obstacle to people using the platform instead of iOS. Epic argued that those kinds of barriers effectively keep people from switching platforms, even when they really want an Android phone on which to play Fortnite.