Last night, Tim Cook dismissed the possibility of solving the green bubble problem — and he revealed the real reason Apple won’t: It doesn’t sell iPhones.
At Vox Media’s Code conference, an attendee told Cook that he had a hard time sending videos to his mother because Apple devices don’t support RCS, the text messaging protocol championed by Google and supported by major phone carriers. Cook responded by offering the attendee to buy his mother an iPhone. “I don’t hear that our users want us to put a lot of energy into it at this stage,” Cook said.
This appears to be the first time Cook has publicly addressed RCS, the Rich Communications Services protocol. RCS is a big improvement over SMS and MMS, allowing you to do things like send higher quality photos and videos, and would fix many of the problems you face when sending messages between Apple and Android devices. But Apple has so far refrained from offering support, and the difference between the blue bubbles of iMessage and the green of regular text messages remains a thorn in Google’s side.
Apple has deliberately chosen to make the superior texting experience via iMessage an Apple-only thing — and Cook’s comments on Wednesday speak to that choice. For years, a key part of Apple’s strategy has been locking users into its platforms. Emails leaked as part of Epic Games v Apple showed top executives such as Craig Federighi (in 2013) and Phil Schiller (in 2016) arguing that bringing iMessage to Android would not benefit Apple . Eddie Cue testified in testimony that Apple could have made an Android version of iMessage that was compatible with iOS, but that apparently wasn’t publicly released.
By making iMessage an Apple-only product—and by continuing to improve it with features like the ability to edit and unsend messages—Apple can argue that the best way to message your friends is on an Apple device using of Apple’s messaging app. While the company could theoretically adopt RCS and keep iMessage on Apple devices, it wins by creating as much separation between Apple and Android texting as possible. That means more people will buy more iPhones.
In recent months, Google has been campaigning hard for Apple to adopt RCS. Google rolled it into Android, of course, and it’s already supported by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon (after a very slow rollout). And given that all three have committed to making Google’s Android Messages app the default text messaging app for the Android phones they sell, it’s far more likely that people will just text through RCS without a second thought this.
Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer led the charge, joking that it has a “really clear solution” to the messaging problems and saying Apple is “holding back” customers who send text messages. The company also recently launched a “Get The Message” website to try to shame Apple into accepting RCS.
Lockheimer understands Apple’s resistance to RCS, “but people should be able to send high-quality videos and photos to their mom without having to buy her a new phone,” he said. Cook, it seems, disagrees.
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