If you wish to do away with iMessage’s inexperienced bubbles while you’re texting with somebody on Android then Tim Cook dinner has the answer: purchase them an iPhone.

Following Apple’s Far Out occasion – the place the corporate introduced the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Professional, Apple Watch 8, Apple Watch Extremely, and AirPods Professional 2 – Tim Cook dinner attended Vox Media’s Code 2022 occasion (opens in new tab). There, Cook dinner was requested about the potential of iMessage adopting RCS messaging – the brand new normal text-messaging system utilized by Android smartphones.

Vox Media’s LiQuan Hunt complained to Cook dinner concerning the points he was having when making an attempt to textual content his mother. Specifically, the movies they shared with one another had been at all times blurry, whereas they’d look nice in the event that they had been utilizing suitable messaging techniques.

To assist remedy this subject Tim Cook dinner advised Hunt, “Purchase your mother an iPhone.” (by way of The Verge (opens in new tab))

For those who had been to move to the Apple retailer proper now, the most cost effective iPhone you possibly can purchase is the iPhone SE (2022) for $429 / £449 / AU$719. That’s earlier than you think about components like insurance coverage and knowledge packages. 

We don’t find out about you, however a $429 workaround to repair iMessage’s RCS incompatibility isn’t an important possibility, so why isn’t Apple providing an alternate?

Evaluation: Apple doesn’t need to assist Android 

Throughout the identical Vox Media occasion, when requested about making iMessage RCS-compatible Cook dinner stated “I don’t hear our customers asking that we put numerous power in on that at this level.” As he places it, as a result of most iPhone customers don’t care about RCS compatibility it isn’t one thing that Apple needs to spend time altering.

That response definitely makes numerous sense. Contemplating the bevy of messaging apps on the market from WhatsApp to Fb Messenger to Telegram to the numerous others, there are many workarounds to the iMessage-RCS drawback. If you wish to ship an image or video, simply ship it a distinct method.

However there’s a a lot greater cause Apple isn’t involved about making iMessage RCS suitable – or together with an iMessage app on Android. It has nothing to realize and lots to lose.

When Apple and Epic Video games had been at trial over Fortnite being kicked off the App Retailer a number of inner Apple and Epic paperwork got here to gentle. One was an e mail from Craig Federighi (Apple’s senior vp of software program engineering) which learn “iMessage on Android would merely serve to take away [an] impediment to iPhone households giving their youngsters Android telephones.”

And Apple’s strategy to getting youngsters onto the iPhone platform has labored. In line with a Fall 2021 report (opens in new tab), 87% of US teenagers surveyed owned an iPhone. By comparability, throughout the entire US solely 46.9% of smartphone customers (opens in new tab) personal an iPhone.

If Gen Z’s model loyalty persists into maturity – maybe as a result of they’ve grown accustomed to Apple’s method of doing issues, love the interoperability of its merchandise, or simply usually really feel locked into iPhone due to their App Retailer purchases – then we may see the make-up of the US’s smartphone market shift extra in Apple’s favor. These Gen Z adults could be extra seemingly to purchase their youngsters iPhones, and the cycle would proceed.

If Tim Cook dinner’s remark has satisfied you to select up an iPhone then you definitely may need to use our information to determine which Apple smartphone is one of the best iPhone for you. Alternatively, you possibly can try the iPhone 14 offers we have discovered so you may get one of the best value in your iPhone 14 preorder.