Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by bombcar on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @03:30PM (#39362433)

More importantly, most Americas do not text anyone outside of the country, and haven't really ever.

So people had no real reason to move off of texting, because it just worked, and Apple's iMessage just looks like texting seamlessly.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by ghaff on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @03:58PM (#39362728)

Yeah, as an American who actually knows a fair number of people overseas, there are probably a literal handful of people who I communicate with on a regular basis there and I use a variety of channels but SMS/iMessage works fine one a day-to-day basis for most folks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by hpeter on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @06:19AM (#39368612)

As an European who lived in multiple countries, I haven't used SMS in 10 years for anything other than 2FA.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by bombcar on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @08:55AM (#39369759)

It’s like Internet Explorer was for downloading Chrome; SMS is for authentication to get your WhatsApp running.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by ghaff on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @06:01PM (#39376805)

The US probably moved to SMS being basically free (domestically) before Europe did. As a result it seems that the US standardized on SMS (and basically transparently iMessage) because that's what was just there. I never get a Whatsapp message from someone in the US and rarely anything other than SMS/iMessage. I suspect the vast majority of people I know don't have Whatsapp installed. I use it with people I know internationally.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by Arrath on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @04:15PM (#39362920)

As an American with European and Australian friends, they're the ones who got me into using WhatsApp.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by happyopossum on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @04:56PM (#39363391)

> More importantly, most Americas do not text anyone outside of the country, and haven't really ever

As a dual-citizen of Canada and the US, I'd have to say that's massively overgeneralized. Pretty much every Canadian I know regularly texts with Americans (iMessage or not), which means those Americans are texting with people outside of the Country.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by ninjakttty on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @05:26PM (#39363694)

You're not refuting his statement. There are massively way more Americans than Canadians.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by bombcar on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @11:14PM (#39366406)

And Canada is basically America for the purposes of phone numbers and texting.

What’s Canada’s country code?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by shiroiushi on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @11:55PM (#39366663)

No, they're not.

The USA and Canada are really the same country, as far as the telcos are concerned. They're part of the same North American phone system, and have the same +1 prefix. Calls between the countries are all free, and don't carry international charges. You might think they're separate countries, and the governments may agree, but the telecom companies disagree.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation by rchaud on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @10:58AM (#39371426)

> Calls between the countries are all free, and don't carry international charges.

That depends on your phone plan. The telco charges extra if you don't have a US calling plan add-on. US roaming also costs $12/day.

[ Parent | on HN ]