How is it different from iMessage?

iPhone is far away from a monopoly in Europe--in fact I can't think of anybody who uses iMessage at all, and I own an iPhone myself.

Not sure. There’s strong competition in the market in the form of iMessage (and others - see WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc) so I doubt there would be grounds for an anti-trust lawsuit.

There is yes. But Messages would presumably be preinstalled. In that case the EU would have a problem with it most likely.

If it weren‘t preinstalled. We‘ll then it‘s pretty much Signal for example and that doesn‘t solve the problem. iMessage works because it‘s preinstalled and default.

It‘s a miracle and kind of ironic that SMS being non-free drove the whole world (except the US where it was) away from it.

>iMessage works because it‘s preinstalled and default.

Is this country dependent? It is absolutely on-by-default in the United States.

True. Now that you mention it. I seem to remember having iMessage (the feature) be opt-in in Europe. So the feature is on by default in the US for sure? I guess that somehow negates my earlier post. But I suppose people would notice the green bubbles everywhere and remember to turn it on.

Hmm is this a defense against antitrust concerns as well?

iMessage is not opt-in. It's enabled by default even here in the UK. The good thing about it is that it doesn't even require an account, if you just want to use it with a phone number (you need an account if you want to use it with another identity like an email address).

Messages is preinstalled. Regardless of strong competition in the messaging market, the EU would accuse Google of leveraging their dominance in another market (Google Apps on Android and Android itself) to assist Messages.