Apple's iMessage service should not benefit from bullying, says Google

Google has accused Apple of bullying its way into smartphone texting, saying that the iPhone maker deliberately creates peer pressure among the teens to use iMessages and shun Android-based texting.

Apple's messaging service turns texts from Android users green instead of the iOS-native blue, a calculated move which has turned iMessage into a status symbol among teens.

"iMessage should not benefit from bullying. Texting should bring us together, and the solution exists. Let's fix this as one industry," the official Android account said in a tweet.

Apple's messaging service also offers iOS-exclusive features like Memoji.

According to Google's head of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Apple's iMessage lock-in "is a documented strategy".

"Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this," he said in a tweet.

A report in The Wall Street Journal over the last weekend also highlighted this issue.

Apple did consider making iMessage available on Android to attract more users, but concluded that doing so would "hurt us more than help us".

"iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove (an) obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones," Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, said recently.

Google Messages on Android now allow users to properly see emoji reactions sent from the iPhone's Messages app.

Earlier, when an iPhone user reacted to an Android user's message using an emoji, it appeared as a separate text message when received on Android, resulting in confusion.

The latest update to Google Messages has prepared for a new way to handle the annoying iMessage reaction messages often seen in mixed group chats.

In the newest beta update to Google Messages, the company has attempted to handle incoming iMessage reactions in a better and seamless way.