Google Claims Apple Follows Its Lead in Smartphone Innovation: 'We Take It As a Compliment'

[MacRumors]

During Google's latest launch event, the company made multiple references to Apple and the iPhone 14, iOS 16, and Apple's reluctance to adopt support for RCS messaging.

Google yesterday held an event where it announced the Pixel Watch, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and offered new details on the Pixel Tablet. During the event, some presenters couldn't help but take a few jabs at Apple and some of Cupertino's latest announcements.

"Pixel has always been a leader in smartphone innovation," said Brian Rakowski, Google's vice president of product management, speaking about Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. "We take it as a compliment when others in the industry follow our lead, like the always-on display and At a Glance, putting useful information right on your Lock Screen," Rakowski continued, alluding to Live Activities on iOS 16 and the iPhone 14 Pro's always-on capabilities.

"We introduced Car Crash Detection three years ago along with other important ways to keep you safe, like safety check and emergency sharing," Rakowski said during the event. Last month, Apple introduced Car Crash Detection with the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and the latest Apple Watch models, and iOS 16 brings Safety Check to users for their own personal safety. "It's an amazing track record of pioneering features that were first on Pixel," Rakowski concluded.

One of the biggest points of tension between Apple and Google is Apple's refusal to adopt RCS messaging support, the latest and increasingly more common standard for messaging. Apple continues to limit messaging on its devices to only the SMS standard and iMessage, despite public calls from Google for it to adopt RCS. Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to those calls by saying it's not something Apple users are asking the company to do.

During Google's event, it once again put pressure on Apple to change course. "RCS is the modern industry standard for messaging, and it's already been adopted by most of the industry. We hope every device maker gets the message and adopts RCS, making texting better for every smartphone user."

Article Link: Google Claims Apple Follows Its Lead in Smartphone Innovation: 'We Take It As a Compliment'

 

[totom_]

Anyone wants some popcorn? I'm just here for the show 😅

 

[addamas]

Is it me only or nobody heard about Car Crash Detection on Pixels which had already problem with dialing 112?

 

[Marbles1]

It's a weird world that the only universal standard for electronic comms is Email. No matter what phone, computer, operating system or software you use, if you want to send an email to someone you can.

There's no 'oh this is Apple's prosperity email client, you need to have this on your computer to receive emails' or 'you can only email a Samsung phone user a plain text email because they don't support the same standards as the iPhone'.

Some hears back, msn messenger was able to talk with yahoo messenger and it felt like were heading toward a unified instant messaging system. Similarly, Facebook messenger used to work with other clients ( think it used xmpp for a while?). It wasn't perfect but it was heading in the right direction.

Now all the drawbridges are up, the walled gardens in place and we've regressed.

 

[contacos]

Competition is good. Remember when iPhone didn’t have copy paste?

I use both platforms and both have nice features that I wish they would copy from one another but that’s mostly due to habits like I find it cumbersome to get an adblocker working on my Samsung while it’s super easy and straight forward on iOS. iOS does not offer enough customization of features they do have. Like I would love to be able to share my actual focus status

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

Google makes the best apps but Apple has the best OS and user experience.

 

[Berti10]

Rewatch those „ingenious“ Samsung ads. Those did not grow old. *grabs popcorn*

 

[Bustycat]

It doesn’t matter. Our government encourages citizens to disable iMessage.

 

[Berti10]

Buying an iPhone: get all the google services + benefits of the iPhone -RCS

Buying a Google phone: -iMessage, -FaceID, -Apple Pay…

 

[CB1234]

I am always wary of companies talking down their competitors.

It's almost as if they have to take a 'pop' at their competitors to make their own product sound better. Feels they are trying to justify themselves.

Competition is good to push boundaries of innovation, talking about competitors is not so good..

 

[MRrainer]

As it's backed by Big G, you can expect both RCS' breakthrough as well as its imminent abandonment at any time in the next six months.

 

[nerdAFK]

Don't rush to defend Apple. Can't deny that Google has a point.

And our beloved Apple is turning into a marketing company under our watch.

 

[DTphonehome]

Apple isn’t always first, but their implementation is usually best. The didn’t have first MP3 player, didn’t have the first smartphone, didn’t have the first smartwatch, didn’t have the first wireless earbuds. But when they did have them, they were best in class and then the first movers all pivoted to follow Apple.

 

[MayaUser]

Google makes the best apps but Apple has the best OS and user experience.

best app are made by the best developers, and those are on iOS/ipadOS side

 

[MayaUser]

Don't rush to defend Apple. Can't deny that Google has a point.

And our beloved Apple is turning into a marketing company under our watch.

Apple is turning in the best product and marketing company...soon, i hope, into the best stable OS also

 

[Wiesenlooser]

Meanwhile the Pixel Watch literally looks like a mock-up of a round apple watch

 

[winxmac]

The iOS versions of apps are way better than their android counterpart...

Android may have existed first but it was introduced to the public a year after iOS [which was called iPhoneOS at the time] was introduced in 2007 through the iPhone [retroactively referred to as iPhone 2G]

 

[sir1963nz]

I think the saying goes like "Google does it first, Apple does it properly"

 

[samifathi]

If Apple really followed Google’s lead all of Apple’s services would be discontinued by now…

 

[hoorayforhollywood]

I might be blind or stupid, but my position is really simple: Other manufacturers make great phone hardware, often better than Apple's in terms on cameras, etc, and arguably design. But nobody but Apple controls the chip manufacturing, and nobody but Apple controls the OS the phone's on. iPhone OS is better than Android - so people say. So whatever the hardware it's never even a temptation. Or is that simplifying matters too much?

 

[aky]

Competition is good. Remember when iPhone didn’t have copy paste?

I use both platforms and both have nice features that I wish they would copy from one another but that’s mostly due to habits like I find it cumbersome to get an adblocker working on my Samsung while it’s super easy and straight forward on iOS. iOS does not offer enough customization of features they do have. Like I would love to be able to share my actual focus status

How is it that hard to add an AdBlocker on your Samsung? Just install Firefox and uBlock Origin and you're all set.
I wish I could say the same about my iPhone - on which Firefox is not Firefox (with its own Gecko Engine) but a mere skin of Safari - on which blocking is a real mess to put it mildly.

 

[maktaba]

Wasn’t Nokia the first one to introduce Always On Screen on their Lumia phones?

 

[laptech]

Is it me only or nobody heard about Car Crash Detection on Pixels which had already problem with dialing 112?

Just because you haven't heard of it being on Pixel phones does not invalidate Googles claims.

 

[Steve121178]

It doesn’t matter. Our government encourages citizens to disable iMessage.

What does your government suggest you use instead? Presumably a messaging service with far less protection?

 

[SoldOnApple]

9 in 10 US teens use iPhone and may continue using Apple devices for the rest of their lives. I'm sure Google would love it if Apple removed their biggest selling point and differentiator, iMessage.