The most damning quote comes from Apple’s software boss Craig Federighi: “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove an obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” “Moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us,” Schiller responded. As early as 2013, the filing has it, Apple was contemplating iMessage for Android to make it easier for people to message themselves no matter the platform, but it never transpired. Eddy Cue admitted Apple “could have made a version on Android that worked with iOS” so that “users of both platforms would have been able to exchange messages with one another seamlessly.” iMessage remains a major iOS exclusiveĪ former employee wrote in a 2016 email to Phil Schiller that “the #1 most difficult reason to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage,” adding that iMessage amounts to “serious lock-in.” IMessage debuted in October 2011 with iOS 5, launching on the Mac the following year. → How to create your custom profile for iMessage To support Epic’s argument, the filing cites emails from high-ranking Apple employees, including Internet Software and Services chief Eddie Cue, Software Engineering head Craig Federighi and Apple’s former marketing chief and now an Apple Fellow, Phil Schiller. Thanks to a new court filing from Epic Games, made as part of its legal dispute with Apple over the App Store rules, we now know without doubt the iPhone maker’s consciously avoided porting its popular services to Android to keep customers locked into its ecosystem and discourage them from switching to Google’s platform. Up until now, we suspected Apple’s ecosystem strategy was the chief reason why we haven’t seen iMessage for Android. Apple: “iMessage amounts to serious lock-in.”.Comments by Apple executives support Epic’s argument.Epic Games calls iMessage a part of Apple’s lock-in strategy.There’s no doubt that Apple’s been leveraging iMessage to keep customers from switching over to Android, using the proprietary messaging protocol as a powerful lock-in mechanism.

Download apple imessage on android