“It’s time for Apple to fix texting. Blurry videos, janky group chats, lack of encryption and more. Texting between iPhones and Android phones is poor because Apple refuses to adopt modern texting standards,” Android states on its official website.
Most people, whether they have an iPhone, an Android, or a different type of phone are aware of these compatibility issues between Apple and Android with group chats, green messages, picture and video quality and overall technological incompatibility. Apple has also been sued by the government for purposely making this more difficult for users.
“There are a lot of aspects on iPhone that you can’t do on Android,” said Wisdom Lambkins, a Sophomore in QUEST who has an iPhone.
“It’s annoying because I can’t see if they read my message or not, you can’t ‘like’ messages and it makes group chats all weird,” added Emma Flores, a Sophomore in PEACE who also has an iPhone.
This has been an ongoing problem and debate for both Android and iPhone users. Apple and Android have been two of the most popular software companies for mobile phones for years, but their compatibility isn’t the best, therefore many iPhone and Android users alike are upset about this issue. Android created the hashtag #GetTheMessage to encourage Apple to attempt to fix this problem.
The main issue is that Apple’s software downgrades text messages into SMS and MMS messages, which causes all the main messaging problems. For Apple to fix this, they would have to change the text messages to more modern technology called RCS, which Android has already implemented.
RCS stands for “Rich Communication Services” according to Google Services. This is the technology that’s presented during iPhone to iPhone texting. RCS provides read receipts, shows you when someone is typing, text over mobile data as well as WiFi and sends high resolution photos and videos.
If Apple switched to RCS messaging, it would solve many of the pronounced issues between the two services and make texting more convenient for both iPhone and Android users.
This is why Android can’t fix this problem themselves because they’ve already updated their technology to RCS to attempt to fix the problem, but because Apple still has the outdated technology, they remain incompatible until then.
Apple has stayed neutral on this topic and hasn’t responded to Android’s callouts to the company, therefore it’s unknown whether Apple is going to change the message encryption.
“I have an iPhone because it was efficient and it was popular,” stated Mr. Creamer, who teaches SEGA Algebra 2 and AP Computer Science. “But I’m thinking of switching to Android because it’s harder to score [code] and some of my students have it [an Android] and it’s easier.” Reasons such as these are the cause of Apple getting sued by the government.
In Mar. 2024, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple under the Sherman Act for unfair practices or financial power, according to an article from the LA Times. Part of this is how Apple is purposely making it harder to leave the service and switch to a different company for its own profits.
The lawsuit would affect the compatibility issue with Android because the lawsuit also has to do with Apple limiting compatibility with other tech services such as Android. If the Department of Justice wins this lawsuit, it could benefit Android users by legally forcing Apple to switch to RCS messaging and solve the issue.
Regardless, the battle between Android and Apple messaging still remains until Apple fixes this issue and brings peace over texting to both iPhone and Android users.
