Apple's iMessage to Finally Get Major Update at WWDC?

[britboyj]

Apple is, of late, rumoured to be revisiting its failed business lines and projects. Ping was a failed social media network and the rumours of an Apple ad network persist, despite the failure of iAd (not to mention that App Store Search and Suggested apps products are not viewed favourably by anyone due to their astronomical cost).

Focus on what's working. Steve would be disappointed.

 

[dba415]

I wonder how many people would switch off iPhones to Android if iMessage is cross platform. Even I considered it at one point. The Samsung Galaxy phones are nice, but Android itself is just so bad compared to iOS (and most phones aren't supported for very long).

I started on Android before coming to iOS many years ago. Yes being able to do almost anything you want on Android is cool but you get over it quickly once you realize most things (even the most basic things like scrolling) simply don't work well or run smoothly. iPhone 4S [my 1st iPhone] felt like a dream phone as everything ran smoothly like water flowing in a river. Never looked back since then.

Anyways the point is I agree with the person above. It needs to go cross platform to truly take off, and I won't be surprised if iMessage for Android is unveiled at WWDC. This is probably bigger than we realize.

Literally none of those problems exist on Android anymore. It’s smoother than ipjone

 

[Techwatcher]

Literally none of those problems exist on Android anymore. It’s smoother than ipjone

I heard (and seen) that it's still not as smooth.

 

[mjaco002]

Details?

Contacts don’t sync across devices. You have to resync them multiple times.

if a person has 2/3 addresses, you can’t make one of them primary. You have to delete the address and then retype the address. To send a person another persons contact information, you have to go the phone or contact app and hit the share contact button. If I am in iMessage, why can’t just send it from there.

I guess these are my pet peeves.

 

[cocoua]

Outside USA iMessege is barely useful as iPhone represents only the 12% of your contacts.
Its a pitty as I like it a lot.
Apple lost a huge opportunity back in the days before whatsapp was born. Now, wechat and whatsapp are 2 giants and iMessege just a very limited chat app.

 

[Macaholic868]

i would say the biggest change and update would be Apple to launch an Andriod Ver of iMessage.

I actually agree here. The issue would be third party iMessage apps and other things iMessages can do that are heavily integrated within the Apple platform like sending Apple Cash to others through it, Animoji and Memoji, sticker packs, etc..

IMHO they shouldn’t even attempt to support those features but they could certainly bring the base functionality of iMessages to Android. Look at what they’ve done with Apple Music and Apple TV. Talk about apps and services that are available on multiple platforms and devices. Particularly the Apple TV app.

The difference being service revenue. Apple Music and Apple TV are apps that deliver Apple services and generate revenue. What money is there really to be made by porting iMessages to Android and/or Windows? There isn’t unless they charge non-iPhone users and I doubt that would fly. Perhaps a bundle? For $0.99 more a month you can get iMessages if you are subscribed to either Apple Music or Apple TV+ on another platform and if you subscribe to both it’s included for free?

The exposure would increase their user base but by a factor of what and how do you monetize it without charging a fee that nobody will pay or trading end user privacy for advertising dollars which is a game Apple has built a business model
and reputation around avoiding?

It might get some people to look into switching to an iPhone but I just think the market is so mature now that most users are either iPhone users or Android users and the chances of getting them to switch are slim to none. Once established most people stick to what they know. Maybe in the early days when iMessages first became a thing and was way ahead of SMS messages but that ship sailed a long time ago.

 

[timeislove]

I actually agree here. The issue would be third party iMessage apps and other things iMessages can do that are heavily integrated within the Apple platform like sending Apple Cash to others through it, Animoji and Memoji, sticker packs, etc..

IMHO they shouldn’t even attempt to support those features but they could certainly bring the base functionality of iMessages to Android. Look at what they’ve done with Apple Music and Apple TV. Talk about apps and services that are available on multiple platforms and devices. Particularly the Apple TV app.

The difference being service revenue. Apple Music and Apple TV are apps that deliver Apple services and generate revenue. What money is there really to be made by porting iMessages to Android and/or Windows? There isn’t unless they charge non-iPhone users and I doubt that would fly. Perhaps a bundle? For $0.99 more a month you can get iMessages if you are subscribed to either Apple Music or Apple TV+ on another platform and if you subscribe to both it’s included for free?

The exposure would increase their user base but by a factor of what and how do you monetize it without charging a fee that nobody will pay or trading end user privacy for advertising dollars which is a game Apple has built a business model
and reputation around avoiding?

It might get some people to look into switching to an iPhone but I just think the market is so mature now that most users are either iPhone users or Android users and the chances of getting them to switch are slim to none. Once established most people stick to what they know. Maybe in the early days when iMessages first became a thing and was way ahead of SMS messages but that ship sailed a long time ago.

Yes. I agreed that launching an android ver of iMessage would not make money right away, rather it is more like a strategic move to get more non Apple device users accessible to Apple services.

to use iMessage I guess an users at least should create an Apple ID, hence would get access to iCloud and other subscriptions services if Apple makes them opening to all Apple ID users.

iMessage is a message platform claimed to be privacy focused. It should be perfectly paired with App sending funds and cash.

here we have a local App linking with credit card and bank account that you could send cash directly or via a link sent through Whatsapp.

If iMessage is available to all mobile users it will be a no brainier choice for sending funds!

Apple has to balance keeping the Apple device users’ privileges and the popularity hence the the usability of on their renown Apps, e.g. FaceTime, iMessage.

 

[Dr_Dre]

Having a device loaded with Eastern European and Chinese malware isn’t worth it. I value my privacy.

What Android device have you used 😂, this aint the 80's

 

[aggiesrwe03]

Makes sense. You can already password-protect individual Notes, so there's some precedent for this, too.

There used to be a jailbreak app that allowed you to create mailboxes within iMessages and password protect the mailboxes, or individual threads; can’t remember the name of it (biteSMS maybe) but it no longer has that feature so I assume apple rewrote the code in iMessages to not allow this anymore. It was such a useful feature you could set different passcodes for each mailbox or thread, and there was even a “hidden mailbox” feature that allowed for certain contacts to be selected to deliver only to that mailbox silently. It was great! I have been waiting for apple to implement these type features for years now, hopefully with competition from Facebook messenger and what’s app they will step it up!