The EU's Digital Market Act prohibits Apple and other tech giants from favoring their own systems.

The long fight to make Apple’s iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union’s Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that “gatekeepers” not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      192·
      1 year ago

      I never understood why WhatsApp is so popular. I used it (a long time ago) and just don’t see it.

      • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.mlEnglish
        33·
        1 year ago

        It’s the network effect. Everyone else uses it - so it is easier to just use it than to not use it.

      • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        151·
        1 year ago

        Because it gave the possibility of free text and calling over the internet , that was a big deal for many developing countries and it is very simple to use. Like I heard some Apple fanboys said that iMessage comes already installed with the phone? And on my mind I am like : How hard is to download an app and just put your phone number you are up and running in less than 2 minutes.

        • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
          14·
          1 year ago

          You want to tell Europe is a developing country? 😂 /s

          • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            53·
            1 year ago

            Lol no , It just that Europeans are not lazy as some Americans who can’t even take 2 minutes to install an app.

            • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Damn, -3 and I didn’t even forget “/s”, what have I done wrong xD

    • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      No. But we have the same reliance now on WhatsApp as the US does with iMessage.

      I’d love to see RCS become the norm so I can ditch WhatsApp.

      • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        iMessage technically isn’t SMS. It just supports it as an additional protocol. On Android, Facebook Messenger and Signal behaves similarly (because android lets apps become the default SMS handler).

        • shackled@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Just FYI Signal no longer supports SMS. They decided it “leads to confusion” and a partially secure app is not good enough. Led me to stop donating to them.