Microsoft wants to work with Apple to bring iMessage to Windows machines.
The company’s upcoming Your Phone app will seamlessly sync content between your iPhone and your Windows 10 PC, but unlike those with an Android device, you won’t be able to sync messages. Microsoft is hoping it can team up with Apple to change that.
Your Phone, unveiled at Microsoft’s BUILD conference this week, hopes to bring your smartphone and PC closer together by making your most important content available across both platforms. It will sync your photos and your notifications, and if you use Android, your messages, too.
But those with an iPhone will be restricted.
Microsoft Your Phone won’t sync your messages with iOS
Apple doesn’t allow third-parties to tap into Messages in the same way they can on Android, so you can’t use iMessage on other platforms. Microsoft is hoping it can work with Apple to change that.
“Apple does make it a tad harder for messages, but we’re very willing to work with Apple,” Shilpa Ranganathan, general manager at Microsoft, told The Verge.
“I want to do this in a supported way with a respect for the ecosystem we’re building on and at the same time make it a delightful experience. Messages is one where we’re not currently where we need to be compared to Android, but we need to work with Apple.”
It seems unlikely that Apple would work with Microsoft, given that it has no interest in making iMessage available outside of its own ecosystem. Microsoft hasn’t yet approached the Cupertino company to discuss the possibility of teaming up on the Your Phone experience.
Allowing iMessages to be synced with Your Phone certainly wouldn’t give iPhone owners a reason to switch platforms. If anything, it would encourage them to use iMessage and get attached to their Apple devices even more. But that doesn’t mean Apple will be willing to play ball.
