Apple's Federighi Says iMessage For Android 'Would Have Held Us Back In Innovating'

Apple Inc AAPL Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Carl Federighi said bringing iMessages to phones running the Android operating system made by rival Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG would have come in the way of innovation.

What Happened: “What it would have accomplished is it would have held us back in innovating and all the ways we wanted to innovate and messages on for our customers,” said Federighi in an interview with Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern.

Apple’s Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) join @JoannaStern at #WSJTechLive to discuss products, privacy and power at the tech giant https://t.co/fNo2JGwMB4 https://t.co/aGrTlZrUo4

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 26, 2022

Federighi also touched on whether the app would have gained “critical mass” on other platforms and said he didn’t believe iMessages would have gotten a mass audience. 

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Why It Matters: In May, Apple-focused journalist Mark Gurman said that “Apple has little to lose — and a lot to gain — by expanding its services to Android.”

However, even Gurman said it wouldn’t make sense to include iMessages on Android. 

Alphabet unit Google wants Apple to adopt RCS, a next-generation text messaging standard, and it has recently unveiled changes that may annoy iPhone users.

In September, CEO Tim Cook told Vox’s Li Quan Hunt to buy his mother an iPhone when the journalist said his mother can’t see the videos he sends her due to interoperability issues between iPhone and Android devices.

Price Action: On Wednesday, Apple shares closed 2% lower at $149.35 in the regular session and rose 0.3% in extended trading, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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