In a new court filing from Epic Games, the company has revealed that Apple previously admitted it could build an iMessage app for Android but chose not to in an effort to keep more people tied down to Apple's ecosystem. iMessage is often seen as one of the most important reasons to buy and stick with iPhone. Not necessarily because it's functionally better than services like Telegram and Signal, but because so many people rely on the service. If someone has a lot of friends and family with iPhones, buying an Android phone and not having the ability to join in on those conversations is a legitimate roadblock.
As for why Epic is bringing up this news about iMessage in the first place, the company has been at legal war with Apple since August 2020. It all started when Epic found a way to bypass Apple's developer fees for in-app Fortnite purchases, and since then, Epic has been in a constant fight trying to expose Apple for being a dangerous monopoly in the mobile tech space.
Epic and Apple's court case officially begins on May 3, and ahead of that, Epic released a new filing with evidence to back up its claim about Apple being a monopoly. The iMessage conversation begins in section 58 of the report, with Epic saying, "Apple has recognized the power that iMessage has to attract and keep users within its ecosystem." That point is then broken off into sub-sections to back it up with evidence, with one of the most revealing tidbits saying, "As early as 2013, Apple decided not to develop a version of iMessage for the Android OS." This was confirmed by Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services — Eddy Cue — who testified that Apple, "could have made a version [of iMessage] on Android that worked with iOS."
Why Apple Never Created iMessage For Android
If Apple admitted that the company could create an iMessage Android app, why hasn't that happened? There's no doubt that it would make messaging a lot less complicated for users all around the globe, and as a lot of people have pointed out over the years, it's a service many would be willing to pay for on Android. Reading through Epic's court filing, it all boils down to "lock-in" for Apple. Per the filing, a former Apple employee commented in 2016 that "the #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage...iMessage amounts to serious lock-in."
Current executives within Apple also share that notion. Current Apple Fellow and former head of marketing, Phil Schiller, is on record saying, "moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us." The court filing also has a quote from Craig Federighi (Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering) saying, "iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones." In short, Apple knows that iMessage on Android would be good for everyday people, but because the company fears it would hurt the bottom line too much, it doesn't exist.
It's generally been assumed over the years that there hasn't been a technical limitation preventing iMessage from coming to Android, so while the findings of this report aren't all that surprising, they also don't look good for Apple's defense in the upcoming court date. Apple certainly isn't obligated to bring iMessage to Android just because people want the company to, but as another piece of evidence to show how Apple's business practices can be anti-competitive, it's a smart play on Epic's part.
Source: Epic Games