iMessage acts as “an important gateway between business users and their customers” and should be regulated as a “core” service under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google and a group of major European telecoms companies said in a letter to the European Commission. From a report: It would be of great importance for iMessage to be designated as a ‘core platform service’ as it could force Apple to make it interoperable with other messaging services. The letter arrives as the European Commission investigates whether iMessage meets the requirements to be regulated under the bloc’s strict DMA rules. With its #GetTheMessage campaign, Google has been very vocal about its desire for Apple to adopt RCS, the cross-platform messaging standard that is being pitched as the successor to SMS. “Apple’s iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy,” Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer wrote last year on X, then known as Twitter. “Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is unfair to a company that has humanity and equality at the core of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this.”
