In a move that will surely add pressure on Apple to do the same, Google says it's folding a new interoperable messaging specification into its Messages app.
The recent publication of the IETF’s Message Layer Security (MLS) specification is another step on the road to major messaging platforms being interoperable, allowing people to send messages between services for the first time. Google says it's applying MLS to the Messages app on Android, but what comes next?
Whether Apple will choose to follow suit is a big question and while Apple hasn't commented publicly, we think we might already know the answer.
Apple's walled garden
Anyone hoping that Apple will add MLS support to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch might have to wait a long time for that to happen — if it all. Apple sees iMessage as a key part of the reason people use its devices in the first place and opening it up to Android users in this way would likely lessen its pull. That's also likely why iMessage doesn't support RCS, a rich replacement for SMS that supports many of the features of iMessage but is cross-platform.
Google made its own announcement in a blog post , saying that it is "strongly supportive of regulatory efforts that require interoperability for large end-to-end messaging platforms." Google didn't elaborate, but that's likely a comment related to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA has already taken aim at iMessage and wants to make it so that all large messaging platforms work seamlessly together, no matter who owns them. Google appears to be in agreement according to its comments in this blog post.
Google says that MLS "enables practical interoperability across services and platforms" while also remaining "flexible enough to allow providers to address emerging threats to user privacy and security, such as quantum computing."
Whether that's enough to get Apple on board remains to be seen.
