European Union regulators have amended the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to insert new provisions that would force Apple to make iMessage accessible.
The European Council approved the law in July 2022, a year after it was proposed. It will come into force on May 2, 2023. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) contains numerous restrictions designed to prevent large technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google from engaging in anti-competitive activities. For example, the legislator wants Apple to allow its iPhone users to download apps outside of the App Store. The EU urges Apple also wants to allow third-party iOS browser developers to use their own rendering engines, as the tech giant currently requires developers to use its WebKit engine in Safari. The European Parliament and Council still need to agree this aspect of the legislation with legal experts, but adoption is likely.
Messaging rules: iMessage will also suffer from the new regulations
The major messaging services like iMessage, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp need to open up and work with smaller messaging platforms. The result would be that users could exchange messages, send files or make video calls via messaging apps. While this is possible via SMS, Apple's iMessage service only works on Apple devices. This is why Apple users sometimes see green bubbles in the Messages app indicating an SMS. The iMessage service is a major reason for the iPhone's popularity among young people, for example in the US but also here in Germany. Apple knows that the exclusivity of iMessage is a major selling point for the iPhone and has therefore avoided bringing it to Android. The changes may not be limited to Europe either. Other countries sometimes follow suit with similar laws. It is often easier for companies to apply the changes worldwide. (Photo by DenPhoto / Bigstockphoto)
