An Apple exec wanted to bring iMessage to Android way back in 2013
Recognition: Robert Triggs / Android Authority
- An Apple manager urged the company to make iMessage available for Android as early as 2013.
- The executive cited the threat that Google will buy WhatsApp as a reason to move forward.
- Another Apple manager pushed back against the proposal.
Apple senior executive Eddie Cue previously admitted that an Android version of iMessage could be developed, but colleague Phil Schiller claimed that “moving from iMessage to Android will do us more harm than good.”
Now more documents have been revealed as part of the Apple / Epic case (h / t: The edge), which shows that Cue was ready to go into full swing with the project to make iMessage the “industry standard” for messaging apps.
“We really need to bring iMessage to Android. I’ve had a few people researching this, but we should do everything we can to make this an official project, ”read an excerpt from an April 2013 email written by Cue and sent to the senior senior Vice President of Apple, Craig Federighi, was sent.
Arguments for and against iMessage on Android
Cue also suggested that Apple could lose the mobile messaging game to Google if it didn’t develop iMessage for Android. This was in response to reports at the time Google offered to acquire WhatsApp for $ 1 billion. Of course, Facebook later rushed to buy the popular $ 19 billion messaging platform.
“Do we want to lose one of the most important apps in a mobile environment to Google? They have search, mail, free videos and are growing fast in browsers. We have the best messaging app and we should make it the industry standard. I don’t know how we can monetize it, but it doesn’t cost us much to run it. “
Poll is loadingSeeming to pour cold water on the proposal, Federighi asked Cue how iMessage could be compelling for Android users who don’t have a lot of iOS friends. He added that iMessage needs to be more than a “slightly better app” for users to switch from competing messaging platforms.
Federighi argued that without a strategy to make iMessage the go-to messaging app for most phone users, “I fear that iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove an obstacle for iPhone families using Android their children -Telephones give. “
Either way, it’s clear that Apple was clearly different when it came to the idea of bringing iMessage to Android. Would you like to see iMessage on Android? Let us know by taking the survey above.
