The European Commission announced that Apple's iMessage is not designated as a "core platform service" and therefore does not have to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In a statement, the EU said iMessage should not be designated a "gatekeeper" alongside Microsoft's Edge browser and Bing search engine. The press release is as follows:" After a thorough evaluation of all arguments, taking into account the views of relevant stakeholders and hearing the views of the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission has determined that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising do not constitute gatekeeper services."

This decision came after a five-month investigation of the Commission's list of 22 regulated services, published in September 2023. iMessage managed to escape the DMA, but other messaging services were not so lucky. Meta's WhatsApp and Messenger were both designated as core platform services and will likely need to interoperate with third-party services.

Interestingly, Apple announced that Rich Communication Services (RCS) will be coming to the iPhone in 2024; while a bit different from the opening up of iMessage, this change should make communication between Android and Apple phones more It should improve communication between Android and Apple phones. This change does not open up iMessage to other developers, but instead improves interoperability and security while messaging to Android phones.

However, while iMessage has been able to bypass DMA, other parts of Apple's software have not. With the iOS 17.4 update, Apple aims to bring its devices into compliance with the new EU regulations. This will allow the use of alternative app stores and browser engines other than Webkit. However, there have been some critical comments regarding Apple's recent actions and the regulations it has implemented.

The biggest point of contention concerns the core technology fee, which charges developers €0.50 per download each year after the first million downloads. This plan was called "Hot Garbage" by Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Game, who also claimed that "Apple's plan to block Europe's new Digital Markets Act is another example of bad compliance."

The company argued that.

While the news from the EU is undoubtedly good for Apple, they are still working to implement many of the changes for EU devices. Changes to the app store and browser will be available in the iOS 17.4 update for everyone with an EU device. We will keep you updated as changes become known.