SUMMARY
- The EU has identified WhatsApp as a gatekeeper in the messaging industry and has given it a few months to enable interoperability with other apps.
- The EU’s Digital Markets Act aims to promote fair competition and give consumers more options for alternative services.
- WhatsApp has already begun working on interoperability with other apps, potentially allowing smaller players like Signal to compete more fairly.
The fact that iMessage got the exemptions underpins the entire act. I would any day switch to Signal, if there is 1:1 interoperability b/w the platforms.
iMessage is not considered a gatekeeper in Europe because pretty much nobody uses it. That’s why it’s extempted.
Here people use it as a better SMS. Group chats are all on Discord for my generation and the older generations primarily use FB messenger I believe.
@TheMadnessKing @floppy in Europe for most people iMessage is just the SMS app. Even though it pisses me off that Apple got away with it, having WhatsApp to comply with this is just huge. Everyone here uses WhatsApp, and now I won’t be forced to leave Signal anymore.
Apple just claimed an exception. It’s still up to the EU to determine whether it is actually exempt or not.
I’m sure I read that they got the exemption approved.
Nobody here uses it though
Yes. Thankfully.
It’s really on American regulators to hold American companies accountable if they abuse their dominant position in the American market to the detriment of American consumers.
It’s because there’s not enough people in the EU actually using it.
They got a exception because npbody uses that insecure garbage here, everyone uses Whatsapp tho so this makes a lot of sense!
That’s because iMessage isn’t big in relative terms. It’s pretty much only Apple users (and to make it worth it, you pretty much need a phone, just having a mac.and relying on iMessage isn’t very useful tbh) and people don’t always realise it but iOS isn’t that big. It’s a minority in the smartphone world.