There’s good news and bad news for iPhone owners with Android friends. First the bad: Apple will probably never bring iMessage to Android. But on the bright side, it doesn’t need to.
It’s impossible to speak in absolute terms without knowledge of Apple’s future plans. But given the company’s general product strategy, attention to privacy, and that iMessage is among the reasons some Android owners switch to the iPhone, the chances of Apple expanding its popular messaging service to its main competitor seem slim.
Yet there’s a glimmer of hope for those of us with friends and family members who prefer the opposite operating system. Apple confirmed that next year it will support the Rich Communication Standard for texting, or RCS, meaning some of the biggest issues with cross-platform texting will soon improve. That means you’ll no longer have to settle for texting distorted videos to your green-bubble buddies.
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We were reminded yet again of the blue bubble vs. green bubble divide recently when Apple started cracking down on apps like Beeper Mini that provide iMessage-like features on Android through workarounds. The fact that these apps exist to begin with, and that Beeper Mini made it into the top 25 free Android apps just days after its launch, according to Sensor Tower, serve as another sign that the basic texting experience between iPhone and Android is in need of an upgrade.
Just don’t expect Apple to fix it by bringing iMessage to Android.
Texting features that should be universal
It may be an understatement to say chatting with an Android user through the iPhone’s default messaging app is a subpar experience compared to texting other iPhone users. And I’m not just talking about the color of the bubbles, which has been well documented.
Videos look smaller and distorted when sent to an Android device from an iPhone. There’s also no typing indicator to show when the person you’re texting is responding to your last message. You…
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