The EU Just Ruled in Favor of Big Tech (for Once)

iMessage is still Apple-only, in the EU.

Big tech and the EU aren't getting along lately. Companies like Apple, Google, and Meta have all had to make changes to the way they do business on the continent, as the EU limits their abilities to keep users locked into proprietary platforms.

However, Europe isn't out to break these companies up completely. You can see that in the latest ruling: Yesterday, the European Commission decided that Apple and Microsoft should not be labeled "gatekeepers" for these services:

• iMessage (Apple)

• Bing (Microsoft)

• Edge (Microsoft)

• Microsoft Advertising (Microsoft)

The Commission didn't go into specific detail about what swayed their decisions in this case, but did say they took rebuttal statements from Apple and Microsoft, as well as thoughts from stakeholders and the Digital Market Advisory Committee into account.

Apple and Microsoft are no doubt happy with the European Commission's decisions here. For Apple, it means that the company will not need to open up its iMessage service to other platforms, allowing it to stay locked into the Apple ecosystem without issue. For Microsoft, Bing and Edge can continue to be 100% Microsoft-controlled properties for searching and browsing the web, as is the case for Microsoft Advertising as it concerns marketing.

Google, on the other hand, isn't happy here. In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson Emily Clarke said, “Excluding these popular services from DMA rules means consumers and businesses won’t be offered the breadth of choice that already exists on other, more open platforms.” The company, no doubt, is referring to its own platforms, like Android. Had the EU ruled against Apple, for example, the company would have needed to provide a way for Android users to access iMessage, dramatically altering the incentive to stick with iPhone over Google's platform.

That's what's happening with Meta and its platforms, WhatsApp and Messenger. The European Commission found these to be "core platform services," and, as such, Meta must open them up to work with third-party platforms. Soon, WhatsApp and Messenger users in the EU will find a new inbox in their apps, which will field messages from other chat apps, including, in theory, iMessage, Google Messages, Signal, etc.

While Apple doesn't need to worry about allowing third-party platforms to work with iMessage, things are still changing for the company's strategy. The EU Commission ruled that Apple's App Store, Safari, and iOS are core platform services, and need to be opened up. That's why iOS 17.4, currently in beta testing, adds huge EU-specific changes, such as the ability to use third-party app stores, use third-party browsers that aren't built on Safari's WebKit platform, and set new default browsers.

Most of these changes don't apply to us in the U.S., however, so this ruling doesn't change much for us either way. However, the company already announced big universal changes to messaging late last year in anticipation of EU decisions: Later this year, Apple will bring RCS support to iMessage, which will make it much easier to message between iOS and Android devices.