Towards the end of last year, Apple announced that iMessage would support RCS in 2024, which came as a surprise since this was not anticipated earlier. This led many to speculate on what prompted Apple to make such a sudden announcement. The speculation that many have is related to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union, which requires platforms to allow external apps to connect.
However, the recent announcement from the EU stating that iMessage does not meet the criteria for platform openness due to having less than 45 million users raises questions as to why Apple, knowing that the EU would not enforce this, still chose to support RCS, which goes against their typical style. Apple blogger John Gruber provided insights that Apple was presumably pressured by the Chinese government.
Gruber cited details of China’s new regulations, specifying that devices must support RCS for messaging in order to be sold in the country. This leads him to believe that Apple’s announcement to support RCS in iMessage is more likely due to pressure from China. Nevertheless, the use of end-to-end encryption protocol in RCS raises further questions as to why the Chinese government has imposed these conditions.
Source: John Gruber
TLDR: Apple’s decision to support RCS in iMessage may be influenced by pressure from the Chinese government, and not necessarily related to the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
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