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.

    • tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.ukEnglish
      29·
      2 years ago

      I presume apple users do occasionally…

      I guess this is a way for google to force apple to open the protocol since they can’t just open it in the EU, so it affects the US too. But the EU don’t have to listen to google… if imessage is such a minor player they may just leave it alone.

      • narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        2 years ago

        We use it when WhatsApp has server problems every once in a while or for a round of GamePigeon.

        Ironically, in Europe you’d be “missing out” on most group conversations if you’d insist on using iMessage, as most of your buddies probably have an Android phone with WhatsApp installed.

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        Not really.

        For example, in Sweden, probably half as high of a percentage of people have iPhones as the US and yet everyone uses Facebook messenger and whatsapp, at least when I studied there 5 years ago.

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        The EU won’t leave Apple alone, that’s the whole purpose of the Digital Markets Act (prevent “gatekeepers” from excluding other players).

        The irony here is that Google is throwing stones when they have huge glass roofs. This law will certainly bite them back elsewhere, hopefully. We need strong laws to curb these modern day robber barons.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      241·
      2 years 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
        47·
        2 years ago

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

      • nicetriangle@kbin.social
        29·
        2 years ago

        Basically in a lot of Europe texting was or still is expensive and not unlimited and WhatsApp was a free alternative and Meta did not own it at the time.

        So everyone was like well fuck texting and adopted apps like WhatsApp and then Meta bought WhatsApp. Now in these countries it’s the defacto standard whether you like it or not. Businesses, people, and even sometimes government uses it as the default way to text. It sucks.

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          Also WhatsApp had photos and shit. And no, MMS doesn’t count. I don’t even want to hear about MMS anymore.

          • pascal@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            2 years ago

            MMS and UMTS videocalls were dead in the water the second mobile carriers tried to charge a truckload for that. They did this, they basically made Whatsapp the standard.

        • pascal@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          We use Whatsapp a lot in Europe, but business fronts still communicate with phone and email. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, everything is on whatsapp! You book an hotel? whatsapp message. You need a taxi? whatsapp! you want to order in room service? send a whatsapp message, there’s not even a phone in the room. A tour guide will contact you directly on whatsapp, if you don’t have it installed, good luck.

          • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            Doesn’t it just use you phone number though? Like I could set it to be my default texting app, just like a ton of different texting apps.

              • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                So it’s more that companies text you. You don’t need WhatsApp to send or receive those texts. So why do you need it installed or good luck? Is there some other functionality?

          • nicetriangle@kbin.social
            12·
            2 years ago

            Here in the Netherlands a ton of businesses use WhatsApp. You see it listed as a primary contact method on stationary, signs, vehicles, advertisements, etc all the time here.

        • soulfirethewolf@lemdro.idEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          I wish the US could have been the same in developing on internet messaging. Instead, It’s virtually impossible to find a plan that doesn’t have unlimited SMS and therefore no one ever sees the antiqueness of SMS to be an issue.

          • nicetriangle@kbin.social
            4·
            2 years ago

            I see pros and cons to it. I really do not like having WhatsApp be the default text platform. Seems like a huge conflict of interest.

            One thing the EU is a clear winner on now is plan pricing. It’s insane how much cheaper cell service here than in the states.

      • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        2 years 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·
          2 years 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.

    • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      2 years 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.