Google among groups calling on EU to act over Apple’s iMessage

Google and some of Europe’s largest telecoms operators have called on Brussels to designate iMessage as a “core” service that would require Apple to make the chat app fully compatible with rivals.

The European Commission, the European Union’s (EU’s) executive body, is investigating whether iMessage should be on a list of services that must comply with the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) and so be able to connect seamlessly with competitors such as WhatsApp.

Only Apple users are able to communicate via iMessage, making its signature “blue bubble” texts a key factor in retaining iPhone owners’ loyalty, especially among younger consumers. When customers using smartphones running Google’s Android software join an iMessage chat group, all the messages change colour, indicating the service has defaulted to standard SMS.

Android users also lose some functionality, such as the quality of videos and photos.

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Rivals have long sought to break iMessage’s exclusivity to Apple’s hardware, in the hope that it might encourage customers to switch to other devices.

In a letter sent to the commission, the signatories, which include a Google senior vice-president and the chief executives of Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange, claimed Apple’s service meets the qualitative thresholds of the Act. It, therefore, should be captured by the rules to “benefit European consumers and businesses”, they wrote.

[ Apple and Microsoft fight Brussels over ‘gatekeeper’ label for iMessage and Bing ]

Tech companies with annual revenue of more than €7.5 billion and at least 10,000 active monthly business users in the EU fall under the rules, although regulators have discretion over the designation outside of these metrics. Experts estimate iMessage has as many as 1 billion users globally, and Apple admitted to the commission that it has more than 10,000 business users around the world.

However, as part of the EU inquiry, the iPhone maker has argued that iMessage should not be captured by the new rules because users do not pay directly for its use and its devices can be used without the messaging app, according to documents released by the commission.

The commission said Apple told it: “iMessage does not constitute an important gateway in the [European] Union for business users to reach end users due to its small scale relative to other messaging services”.

But the commission believes iMessage indirectly contributes to Apple’s revenues as the app is pre-installed and can only be used on the company’s devices. Antitrust regulators therefore say iMessage is “an important element of the expansion of Apple’s ecosystem”.

The telecoms companies and Google argued in their letter, which was sent to the EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, that the “fundamental nature” of iMessage as “an important gateway between business users and their customers is without doubt justification for Apple’s designation as gatekeeper for its iMessage service”.

They said consumers would be better off as a result of the designation because “enriched messaging” is only available to Apple users.

iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA

—  Apple statement

“It is paramount that businesses can reach all their customers taking advantage of modern communications services with enriched messaging features,” the letter, which was confirmed by multiple sources, added. “Through iMessage, business users are only able to send enriched messages to iOS users and must rely on traditional SMS for all the other end users.”

Apple declined to comment, but pointed to an earlier statement that said: “iMessage is a great service that Apple users love because it provides an easy way to communicate with friends and family while offering industry-leading privacy and security protections.

“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. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA.”

The commission declined to comment on the letter but said the investigation into iMessage was ongoing. The commission has until February to come to a decision. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023