Google has relentlesslytried every trickin the book toforce Apple to adopt RCSand make iMessage more interoperable, ranging from banners poking fun at events, to subtle mentions in keynote addresses. While Google may not have succeeded yet, the EU recently forced Apple to ditch its beloved Lightning port in favor ofUSB–C for the iPhone 15, expected to debut on September 12. With the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) now in force, there was hope the EU would force RCS into iMessage too, but Apple seems to have dodged that bullet, at least for now.
The EU’s DMAintends to protect consumers and businesses from big tech companies and their core platform services' perceived barriers of entry into the industry or elements preventing healthy competition and interoperability (viaBGR). The EU has strict guidelines quantifying the turnover or number of customers a business should have to qualify as a gatekeeper, but for now, six have been given the designation — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
The EU has identified these companies and their services as gatekeepers
The EU has identified 22 services from these companies which qualify as gatekeepers. Interestingly, iMessage is not on the list this month. The EU originally gave iMessage gatekeeper status for lacking RCS support, but Apple protested and seems to have talked its way out of the hot water. However, iMessage is one of the four core platform services, besides the above-mentioned 22, which the EU is still mulling over. It has opened investigations to analyze the gatekeeper status of Apple’s iMessage, and Microsoft’s Bing, Edge, Advertising businesses. The EU should arrive at a decision in five months.
The tentative timeline prescribed for action on services with gatekeeper status
If the EU forces Apple to add RCS support to iMessage in February 2024, the company will have until August 2024 to make the requisite changes ensuring the app isDMA-compliant. RCS support would greatly enhance interoperability with other communications apps like Google Messages, especially in the US. That said, Apple always has the option of enabling RCS only in the EU, bringing it on a level playing field with the likes of WhatsApp. Apple has dodged the bullet, at least until February.
Meanwhile, these tech companies have six months to alter the core services currently designated as gatekeepers. For iOS, for instance, it would need to pick a few Android-inspired changes like support for app sideloading and parallel app stores. Non-compliance could attract penalties as high as 10% of the company’s global turnover, or 20% for repeat offenses.
