"In its latest set of demands, Facebook is now looking to become the default messaging app on iPhones," according to one media report, which added that "Facebook already has market dominance around the world when it comes to messaging -- it owns 3 of the most popular messaging platforms in the world."
There's a catch -- that report was published in 2000, but Facebook's (now Meta's) push to offset iMessages's lock on iPhones has not changed since. What has changed -- or is about to -- is Apple's stance. Come the release of iOS 18.2 next month, the push for a different default messaging app on iPhones -- at least in part -- finally comes true.
iOS 18.2 public beta 3 has just been released, bringing the raft of Apple Intelligence updates that users have been waiting for after iOS 18's scant initial set of offerings. But iOS 18.2 also brings the default app settings that are a game-changer for iPhone messaging, a huge setback for Google and RCS, and a win for Meta.
"In iOS and iPadOS 18.2 and later," Apple says, "a user may select an app other than the Messages app to send instant messages. The system launches the default messaging app to handle when a user taps an im: link from another app." The iMaker has also told platforms how to "prepare your app to be the default messaging app."
Make no mistake -- this new default app offering will be all about Meta. Whether it's messaging or the default phone app, only their platforms -- Messenger but mainly WhatsApp -- have the scale across iPhone's user base to optimize this opportunity.
This comes after the years long wait for iPhone to finally adopt RCS, and just as Google issues a public thank you to Samsung for making it happen: "We have worked hard for years to make RCS the standard for improved cross-platform messaging, and Samsung has been instrumental in the growing adoption of RCS."
Samsung has responded with its own love message to RCS: "Committed to cross-platform communication, Samsung partnered with Google to help drive the adoption of Rich Communication Services (RCS), a modern, interoperable standard for enhanced messaging... Now with the latest version of iOS supporting RCS, the benefits are available beyond the Android ecosystem when messaging across platforms. This wider adoption takes the industry one step closer to a universal seamless messaging experience, improving how users connect around the world."
Apple's timing could not be worse. Why use RCS with all its limitations when WhatsApp already delivers the seamless, cross-platform, secure experience that RCS won't bring anytime soon. Echoes of this in Samsung's subtle warning in that same RCS ode that "encryption [is] only available for Android to Android communication."
Facebook/Meta's message dominance has not changed since that article was penned in 2020. While the push to combine Meta's assets into a mega-messenger have faded away, the core features have converged, with WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption USP now protecting content on Messenger as well, much to the dismay of lawmakers.
Even the last-stand holdout against WhatsApp dominance -- the US -- is slowly crumbling. Mark Zuckerberg, who has made overcoming iMessage's US stronghold a personal mission, was quick to celebrate the news over the summer that "WhatsApp now has 100 million users in the United States."
How fast all this becomes possible remains to be seen. Don't expect it all to be seamless on the release of iOS 18.2, but it is coming and it will change how you use your phone. It will be limited to start, the default messenger and phone app won't replace all the OS operations, but it will do the basics at first and it will expand.
With perfect timing, mobile comms service provider Sinch announced this week "the achievement of delivering over 1 billion Rich Communication Services (RCS) business messages globally in 2024." Business messaging and marketing is still an underpin for RCS, but this highlights that WhatsApp and other over-the-tops remain largely opt-in and don't suffer the plague of marketing and scam texts seen on SMS and RCS.
The iOS 18.2 update won't change the delivery app for SMS messages. But iOS already automates delivery of OTPs and you can open iMessage when needed. This new default app option is arguably the biggest change to Apple's walled garden when it comes to core phone functionality. Millions of iPhone users -- especially those in the US with a particular affinity to blue bubbles -- have a decision to make.
That WccfTech article from 2000 cautioned that "while we agree that Apple should allow users to change all app defaults on iOS, we have absolutely no reason to give Facebook access to more data. It will just add to the privacy and security nightmare that Facebook's handling of user information has become over the years."
How Apple balances its lock on security and privacy with opening the platform in this way remains to be seen. Suffice to say, be careful which new defaults you pick.