Before WWDC kicked off, rumors suggested that Apple could announce iMessage for Android at the show. That didn’t happen, though, and so the company was asked why iMessage isn’t being extended to other platforms.
In an interview with Walt Mossberg, a senior Apple executive said that there are two reasons why iMessage is an iOS exclusive. The first is that Apple thinks that its user base of 1 billion active devices is enough for any kind of AI learning feature that the Apple is working on. Second, Apple feels that having solid messaging platform that only works on its own devices helps to encourage sales of those devices.
While there’s always a chance that iMessage could be made available on Android or another platform — never say never, right? — Apple is making it sound like its messaging service is going to remain an iOS-exclusive feature. That could indeed help sell some iPhones in the future and keep some existing users locked in to iOS, and with the new app store that’s coming to iMessage, porting the service to Android would be a bit more complicated now that it was before.
Would you switch to Android if Apple made iMessage available on Google’s platform?