iMessage

iPhone voice transcription is already included in iMessage, and is available in some other chat apps – but not always for free. In Telegram, for example, you have to pay for a premium membership to get the feature.

The latest Bloomberg piece says that Apple is finally bringing audio transcription to the Voice Memo app, and this seems a perfect opportunity to make it a system-wide feature …

iOS includes an iMessage security feature called Contact Key Verification (CKV) that gives users more certainty they’re messaging with the people they think they are. Follow along for what this feature is, how it works, and how to turn on Contact Key Verification on for iMessage.

If you’re having problems trying to use iMessage this Thursday night, it’s not just you. Many users are reporting that iMessage is currently down around the world. However, Apple is yet to acknowledge any issues.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has tweeted a somewhat bizarre one-minute video in which she says that green texts are “ruining relationships” and that this is “just one of the dirty tactics that Apple uses to keep a stranglehold on the smartphone market.”

Warren uses the to-camera piece to voice her support for the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple, but has chosen a rather peculiar argument to do so …

One element of the DOJ antitrust lawsuit against Apple addresses iMessage, and Apple’s decision to keep the app exclusive to iPhone. But it goes further than arguing that this is anti-competitive, and attacks the use of green chat bubbles for Android users as creating “social stigma.”

A lawyer commenting on this claim says that it effectively amounts to the Department of Justice complaining that people think the iPhone is cooler than Android phones …

Apple has launched a major security upgrade for iMessage – protection against quantum computers. Read along for how to get iMessage quantum security on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, why it’s valuable, and more.

Security is a never-ending mission and today Apple has announced its latest innovation for protecting iMessage. Already live in the iOS 17.4 beta is an innovative post-quantum cryptographic protocol called PQ3. The novel upgrade gives iMessage “the strongest security properties of any at-scale messaging protocol in the world.” Here’s why iMessage quantum security is important now and into the future, how PQ3 works, and more.

The iMessage antitrust threat hanging over Apple has now been removed, as the EU decides that the messaging service does not have enough European users to qualify as a dominant service.

That means that Apple will not be required to support messaging interoperability, which would have allowed messages to be sent between competing chat apps …

As part of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation, big tech companies will be forced to change many of their services to comply with the new legislation. You’re probably already familiar with the upcoming changes to the App Store, but DMA will also affect messaging apps – and it looks like Meta has already been working on making WhatsApp compatible with third-party chats.

iMessage is certainly one of the most popular messaging platforms in the US, which has resulted in long-standing discussion about its interoperability with non-Apple devices. While some users are waiting for the iPhone to get RCS support later this year, it seems that Meta has been taking advantage of this situation as WhatsApp’s daily active user base has grown in the U.S. But will it ever overtake iMessage?

Yes, the iMessage App Store is still a thing, although many iOS users have no idea that they can download iMessage mini-apps. YouTube was one of the apps that integrated with Apple’s messaging app, but now it seems that the company has decided to discontinue its iMessage mini-app.

While Apple is making behind-the-scenes preparations for allowing third-party app stores to comply with Europe’s antitrust requirements, the company is continuing to make arguments about why it shouldn’t have to.

Latest among these is the suggestion that the App Store shouldn’t be viewed as a ‘platform’ as the company actually operates five different app stores …

Between 2019 and December 2022, an extremely advanced iMessage vulnerability was in the wild that was eventually named “Operation Triangulation” by security researchers at Kasperksy who discovered it. Now, they’ve shared everything they know about the “most sophisticated attack chain” they’ve “ever seen.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is carrying out at least a preliminary antitrust investigation into Apple blocking Beeper, the unofficial app which gave Android users access to iMessage. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also appears to be “evaluating” Apple’s actions.

Today’s report follows a call for a DOJ investigation by a bipartisan group of senators, and Bleeper’s announcement that it has now given up any hope of keeping the app working …

Our sister site 9to5Google yesterday reported that Beeper Mini is now broken for most users – no longer allowing Android users to send and receive iMessages – after Apple took further steps to block the app.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is now calling on the Department of Justice to look into whether Apple’s action against the app amounts to “potentially anticompetitive conduct” …

Last week, Beeper Mini debuted as a way to bring iMessage to Android without having to hand over your Apple ID credentials. A few days later, Apple made a change that stopped Beeper Mini from working – and it promised to continue doing so.

Apple’s decision has already attracted attention from at least one lawmaker, with US Senator Elizabeth Warren criticizing Apple’s move to shut down Beeper Mini.