Google SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer says by not supporting RCS in iMessage, Apple is “holding back” the industry and UX for not just Android but its own customers
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the opening shot of what became a sustained Google pressure campaign against Apple over messaging. Lockheimer's argument — that Apple is holding back the experience for its own customers too by refusing RCS in iMessage — reframes the issue from an Android grievance to a cross-platform quality problem.
The arc runs back further than this spat: leaked emails show Eddy Cue once pitched iMessage for Android while Craig Federighi argued it would only remove an obstacle for iPhone families buying Android phones, confirming Apple treats iMessage as deliberate lock-in. Google later escalated with the Get The Message campaign and cited 500M+ monthly RCS users in Android Messages to argue the standard has scale.
First-order effects
- Apple faces a public framing problem: Lockheimer's claim that iPhone users themselves suffer degraded cross-platform messaging (low-quality media, SMS fallback) makes Apple's refusal look like it taxes its own customers, not just Android's.
Second-order effects
- Google gains a PR wedge to escalate — the later Get The Message campaign and its 500M+ MAU figure turn a technical dispute into a consumer-facing argument about photo quality and encryption gaps.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, default-messaging-app lock-in becomes a named competitive tactic rather than an emergent one, inviting scrutiny of whether platform holders should be obliged to interoperate on open standards like RCS.
The trend: Mobile messaging is moving from proprietary walled gardens toward carrier-grade open standards, with Google using public campaigns to force Apple's hand on RCS.