Apple's iMessage chat service may dodge EU regulatory demands for platform interoperability after all. Bloomberg reports that an investigation by the bloc's antitrust watchdog has tentatively concluded that the chat service is not popular enough with business users to warrant being subject to the new rules. The EU has been working on legislation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that would have required Apple to make changes to iMessage to make it available on other platforms. The rules will apply to tech giants that meet its "gatekeeper" criteria, force them to open up their various services and platforms to other companies and developers. The interoperability rules theoretically mean that Meta apps like WhatsApp or Messenger could request to interoperate with…

Everyone's buzzing about how it works, how it avoids other's recent security pitfalls and whether Apple will try to crush it. (via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Beeper Mini, a new app that ostensibly brings iMessage to Android devices with no need for sign-in with Apple ID credentials, today launched on the Google Play Store. Beeper Mini operates by identifying text message conversations from iMessage users and converting them to the recognizable blue bubbles associated with Apple's exclusive messaging service. This enables Android users to interact with iMessage features such as reactions, threads, high-quality media sharing, and group chats, without the iPhone users noticing any difference. The app represents a departure from previous methods of accessing iMessage on non-Apple devices, which typically involved relaying messages through a Mac hosted in the cloud or signing in with an ‌Apple ID‌. Beeper Mini's approach involves direct communication with Apple's…

Sunbird, an app that is designed to deliver iMessages to Android devices, has been temporarily shut down due to security concerns. Sunbird this week sent out a notification to users letting them know about the shutdown (via 9to5Google). Sunbird said that it was investigating security issues that had been raised by the Nothing Chats iMessage app, and shortly after, told users that Sunbird usage had been paused. "We will update you when we are ready to proceed," read the notification. The Sunbird app was first introduced in late 2022, and it has been limited to customers that signed up for the waitlist. The Sunbird website describes the app as unifying "the world's most popular messaging apps" into a single app,…

Apple says it will support the Rich Communication Services messaging standard that will make it easier to send texts between real and pretend iPhones, but messages from the latter will still appear as green bubbles. Liv McMahon for The Beeb: ‎ [Apple] will introduce support for a new [sic it’s not new] messaging standard – Rich Communication Services (RCS) – on iPhones and iOS devices from 2024. RCS is a standard designed to make it easier for phones on different operating systems to exchange messages. Apple says it will support a new messaging standard that will make it easier to send texts between phones. But messages from Android phones will still appear as green bubbles… Apple plans to introduce support…

Apple will add RCS messaging support to iPhone, iPad, Mac through a software release come in the later half of next year, the company said in a statement on Thursday. It’s a move that’s pretty much guaranteed to finally kill the shiteous SMS dead. Boone Ashworth for Wired: ‎ RCS can do more than SMS and MMS: It allows users to share higher-resolution photos and videos between their devices; it supports read receipts; and there’s more fun stuff, like the ability to easily drop emoji and GIFs into a conversation. It also adds extra layers of security that the older messaging standards lack. Apple has famously shunned RCS in favor of its own iMessage platform, resulting in a layer of…