14 DAY TRIAL // One of the pre-WWDC 2016 rumors that reached our ears claimed that Apple was planning to release its iMessage iOS messaging app on Android in an effort to boost the number of users for its services, but now that the conference has already passed, it’s very clear that this was just fake speculation.
And yet, there’s still hope that, at some point in the future, Apple might actually bring iMessage on Android, but in a recent interview on the sidelines of WWDC, a company executive explains that this is very unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The Verge’s Walt Mossberg revealed a recent conversation with an undisclosed Apple executive who commented on rumors that the company could release iMessage on Android, pointing out that Cupertino has no intention of going in this direction.
The Apple exec offered two reasons that make perfect sense when it comes to keeping iMessage an iOS-exclusive feature.
iMessage is one top iPhone selling point
First of all, the Apple employee stresses that iOS already has enough users to provide the company with what he called a “large enough data set,” which means that whenever there are new improvements available for the app, there are always many users who can embrace them. And this is undoubtedly true.
iMessage has become one of the essential messaging apps in markets such as the United States, where third-party apps such as WhatsApp are yet to expand as much as in the rest of the world. The majority of users owning an iPhone prefer to stick with iMessage rather than use a third-party solution, and Apple knows it very well, so the built-in messaging app remains a strong selling point of new iPhones.
And second of all, Apple claims that iMessage can be one of the decisive factors when it comes to buying new devices, as some customers specifically pick an iPhone just for this app. Imagine that you’re thinking of buying a new phone and all your friends or colleagues are using iMessage. Your decision shouldn’t be too difficult: are you going to buy a handset that provides access to the service that everyone else is using or one that lacks it but offers other features?
Clearly, Apple is trying to maximize the potential of iMessage, and keeping it exclusively available on iOS is one way to do that. So there you go, iMessage wasn’t, isn’t, and the chances are that it’ll never be available on Android.