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Google, European Telecoms Giants Call on EU to Force Open iMessage
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EU: No one uses iPhone in Europe.
Also EU: iMessage must be designated a gatekeeper due to the large amount of users
All this BS sucks. Google just wants to force their version of RCS to collect user data. There’s already SMS that’s available on every phone. Even old flip phones.
Also EU: iMessage must be designated a gatekeeper due to the large amount of users
All this BS sucks. Google just wants to force their version of RCS to collect user data. There’s already SMS that’s available on every phone. Even old flip phones.
iMessage in its current form can’t be made interoperable because it relies on a private key burned into every apple devices’ Secure Enclave during manufacturing to decrypt the incoming message. If you have an iPhone and iPad and someone sends you an iMessage you are actually getting 2 separate messages each encrypted with a different public key. This hardware specific feature is only found on apple silicon.
There is a solution to comply however:
(A) disable iMessage for all apple devices sold in the EU
(B) disable end to end encryption for iMessage for EU devices. All messages sent to devices sold in the region are plain text. Then install a gateway to forward messages from other messaging systems into/out of iMessage ecosystem.
You know what is the biggest impediment to communication interoperability in the EU? The plethora of languages! They need to mandate that everyone in the union speaks a single language! /s
Tell you the truth it can be. Hardware based key is only one of the options. The same hardware key could be emulated with software.
Also as you pointed out E2E encryption. Still possible as the public private key is tied to each chat. Between 2 apple devices it is end to end. More like account to account encrypted. If between say WhatsApp and iMessage those conversations might not be end to end as Apple does not control the connection from iMessage to WhatsApp. Still could be E2E if WhatsApp uses its own public private key for each conversation.
The protocols for convos does not change so only risk of compromise exist only on conversations at go out of of apples system.
If you follow what von der Leyen & co are doing in the EU, nothing surprises you anymore. I actually only use a "special" messenger anymore. I was born in East Germany and thought those days were over...
The only reason to act like that is possible surveillance. T-Mobile here in Europe agrees to all of that.
As soon as they open it up, the scammers will come flooding in.
Apple is not a charity, it is a for-profit corporation.
Did SiriusXM "open" their system? Netflix? Google (core algos)?
Apple is not a charity, it is a for-profit corporation.
Did SiriusXM "open" their system? Netflix? Google (core algos)?
if there’s interoperability that’s good.
being able to text people from a single app is good, I like this.
being able to text people from a single app is good, I like this.
And T-Mobile here in the USA keeps getting breached and leaking my private identity data (which was stolen, not provided with my permission), but self-aggrandizing social warrior Timothy Youngblood keeps his job.
Are you suggesting that SMS isn't an open protocol?
A bit of history for our American friends... The East German Post - as the only "state-owned telephone provider" in the GDR - monitored the people in droves. I know this very well, because I had cleaned the windows there as an apprentice back then. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, they came together with the West German postal service, from which T-Mobile emerged. And now you can all think about it...
The problem is Apple not supporting RCS and bundling your run of the mill text messaging with iMessage means it breaks the whole experience of messaging for everyone. Sure they can create an Android iMessage app if they like, and that’ll be welcome, but iPhone owners should not be held hostage behind Apple’s wall from using RCS with their phone numbers with other phone numbers.
Oh really? Germany here, I only use iMessage, Signal and Threema.
We should all be on the same messaging standard. This is just like the whole USB C issue.
Standards exist for a reason.....it ensures they support technical regulations, ensure interoperability. The whole tech world has standards for everything around software and technology. Messaging is no different. We should all be on the same standard.
Standards exist for a reason.....it ensures they support technical regulations, ensure interoperability. The whole tech world has standards for everything around software and technology. Messaging is no different. We should all be on the same standard.
Everybody uses SMS. OR, more correctly, everybody CAN use SMS. If you know their number, try it! Their carrier may end up charging them, but, hey, at least you’re not using the app they’re forcing you to use.
If you don’t know their number… you’re kinda cut off from them already
Not always. The key part is messaging service and iMessage for example does not require the use of a phone number. For example I can use iMessage using only the account it is tied to that has no phone number tied to it. SMS is not a fall back in that case.
WhatsApp is the same way no phone number tied to it.
That would be awesome: iPhone EU version and iPhone non-EU version where apple should drop support for iPhone EU version for 100%.
It seems like, T-Mobile gives the Data on "request" right away to the government. Keep that in mind. If they do it in Germany, the will do it all over the world. That's why i do not believe in "Leaks".
This is just getting gross. Whose fault is it that “enriched messaging” “only exists” on Apple platforms?
Hangouts, Talk, Duo, those are just the ones I used/was constantly pestered to use and Google killed them all. There are probably more I’m not thinking of.
Google is just being petty because they are incapable of playing the long game Apple has been at for over a decade.
Google has Messages with their own implementation of RCS, why aren’t they encouraging governments to meddle in that? They would of course argue that there aren’t enough users…
I wouldn’t be opposed to Apple releasing iMessage for Android but that’s their decision and I think it’s wrong for governments to meddle in that, especially when they are clearly being goaded by a competitor to do so.
Hangouts, Talk, Duo, those are just the ones I used/was constantly pestered to use and Google killed them all. There are probably more I’m not thinking of.
Google is just being petty because they are incapable of playing the long game Apple has been at for over a decade.
Google has Messages with their own implementation of RCS, why aren’t they encouraging governments to meddle in that? They would of course argue that there aren’t enough users…
I wouldn’t be opposed to Apple releasing iMessage for Android but that’s their decision and I think it’s wrong for governments to meddle in that, especially when they are clearly being goaded by a competitor to do so.
McDonald’s should also be forced to sell the whopper. What happens to the family that is split on the decision.
Too bad there's not an iOS version.
There used to be other Apps for iOS when Instant Messaging was still a thing. I remember I used to have one on my iPhone 3G before Push Notifications and running in the background were a thing. You had to open the App manually to see the new messages. What a time to be alive!
Doesn't iMessage already interoperate with phone messengers, by sending an SMS? Is Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, etc interoperable with other messaging platforms like Signal ?