Apple’s Reason For Not Bringing iMessage to Android Revealed

Apple’s reason for not bringing its popular iMessage service to

Android was revealed in an Epic Games legal filing this week.

According to Epic Games, SVP Eddy Cue testified that Apple

“could have made a version on Android that worked with iOS”

such that there would “have been cross-compatibility with the

iOS platform so that users of both platforms would have been

able to exchange messages with one another seamlessly”.

(Cue Dep. 92:5-9; 92:11-16.)

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RAE
SVP Craig Federighi feared that “iMessage on Android would simply

serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids

Android phones”. (PX407, at ‘122.) Phil Schiller agreed that Apple

should not offer iMessage on Android devices. (Cue Dep. 92:18-93:1.).

In 2016, when a former Apple employee commented that “the #1

most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage. . .

iMessage amounts to serious lock-in” to the Apple ecosystem, Mr.

Schiller commented that “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us

more than help us, this email illustrates why”.

(PX416, at ‘610; Cue Dep. 114:14-115:2.)

The Epic Games vs Apple trial begins on May 3.