Report: EU may not force Apple to make iMessage interoperable with other services

Ben Schoon | Dec 6 2023 - 6:45 am PT

Over the past few months, the EU has been going after “gatekeepers,” with one goal being to make messaging services interoperable. Google has been one voice pushing for Apple’s iMessage to fall under that regulation, but according to a new report, the EU may not take things that far.

According to sources speaking to Bloomberg, the EU is currently leaning towards leaving Apple out of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), as watchdogs have “tentatively concluded that it isn’t popular enough with business users to warrant being hit by the regulation.”

The DMA specifically targets messaging services that are used by business users, going after any service considered to be an “important gateway” for those users, a definition that iMessage apparently does not fall under. Importantly, though, the decision has not been finalized.

This comes just a couple of weeks after Apple announced that it would adopt RCS on the iPhone in 2024. RCS, of course, is an interoperable industry standard that offers many of the features that make iMessage so popular in the US, such as high-quality media uploads, typing indicators, and better group chats. Android phones have widely adopted the standard in recent years, and Apple’s version will be compatible with the same Universal Profile behind the scenes.

Apple announced the adoption of RCS on the last day that EU regulators were taking comments about “gatekeeper” status.

Meanwhile, Beeper yesterday launched a new app on Android that uses a reverse-engineered method to tap into iMessage without (or with) an Apple ID, all using the phone number on your Android phone.