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iMessage to stay whole in EU and probably elsewhere too
In This Article
The European Union will not meddle withApple’s iMessage appand force it to be interoperable with other third-party messaging services.
The European Commission has today announced it has closed an investigation into whether iMessage – as well as Microsoft’s the Bing search engine and Edge browser – should be classed as “gatekeeper services.” And the verdict came out in favour of the tech companies.
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It means iMessage can continue as a separate entity without having to open up to other services like WhatsApp, Google Messages, et al. That would have muddied the waters significantly with potential security implications foriPhoneusers.
Apple had argued that because most mobile users use many different messaging apps that switching between them had become second nature.
“Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them,” an Apple spokesperson said (viaReuters).
If the decision had gone the other way, iMessage would have been subject to the same Digital Market Act rules as the App Store, which will soon be forced to accept third-party marketplaces and payment platforms.
It all boiled down to whether the services could prevent businesses from accessing consumers. In the case of the App Store, the EU decided “yes”. As for iMessage, it was a “no.”
“Following a thorough assessment of all arguments, taking into account input by relevant stakeholders, and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission found that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising do not qualify as gatekeeper services,” the EU said in anews releaseon Tuesday.
The EU ruling may put that issue to bed with Apple very unlikely to open up iMessage voluntarily and regulators outside of the EU less likely to take up the issue.
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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA. …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
