Apple plans to launch its credit card

Apple won't be compelled by the EU to alter iMessage

According to the EU's Digital Markets Act, the European Commission has declared that it would not consider Apple's iMessage service to be an essential platform service.

Due to the ruling, the service won't be held to stringent additional requirements, such as facilitating interoperability with other messaging systems.

Additionally, the Edge browser, Microsoft's advertising business, and the Bing search engine were not designated by the European Commission as essential services for the platform.

According to the EU press release, "The Commission determined that Microsoft Ads, Bing, Edge, and iMessage do not qualify as gatekeeper services."

 "The committee arrived at this decision following a thorough assessment of all the arguments, considering the feedback from pertinent stakeholders, and following the hearings of the Digital Markets Advisory Committee," the news release continued.

Even if these platforms have satisfied the quantitative requirements to be classified as basic platform services, this judgment has been made.

 The Commission launched a five-month investigation when it released its list of twenty-two regulated services last September, and this decision marked the conclusion of that examination.

The list listed the iOS operating system, the Apple App Store, and the Safari browser as necessary platform services, but it postponed making a determination about iMessage until the inquiry was finished.

 Simultaneously, Meta observed that the Digital Markets Law categorized WhatsApp and Messenger as fundamental platform services.

The business previously provided an explanation of when WhatsApp interoperability will happen, stating that users will have to choose to receive messages from outside messaging apps, which will show up in a different mailbox.

 Businesses who want to work with WhatsApp must accept and abide by the rules of the Meta Agreement.

Although the period of regulatory scrutiny coincided with Apple's release of support for the RCS messaging standard throughout the iPhone—a move that Google had been advocating for—iMessage escaped the burden of complying with the restrictions that come with the Digital Markets Act.

 November 16 is the deadline for filing an appeal with the European Commission over the classification of laws pertaining to digital markets, according to Apple's RCS announcement.

Apple clarified that iMessage will continue to function in conjunction with the RCS standard and will not take the place of it.

 The greatest and most secure messaging app for Apple consumers, iMessage, is compatible with RCS, according to company spokesperson Jacqueline Roy at the time.

The only difference between blue and green bubbles is that the former represent messages delivered over SMS, while the latter signify messages sent using RCS.