New EU laws to force HUGE new features into iOS (alternate app stores, side loading & more!)

I'll just do this one quick because I don't want to have a huge conversation about this

but this is definitely an interesting development in the world of Apple

There are plans in place in the EU to force iMessage to work with WhatsApp and other messaging apps

And as part of this new legislation that's being crafted, it's called the Digital Markets Act

and it's trying to force Apple, Google, meta, and Microsoft to be more balanced

I guess is what they say. Their words not mine. And to make their technology play more fairly

with other technology like IMessage, working with other messaging apps, and to basically bust their control

over their own marketplaces and their devices. And the idea is that they would force

IMessage to work with other apps, including like WhatsApp and stuff. which iMessage is something that keeps you in the Apple ecosystem because it's such a great app

Although, you know, I find that I actually don't use IMessage as much these days because I'm actually annoyed that it's only available on Apple products

Because I often have to work on a PC. Like, I'm on a PC right now, the Colt Commander

You can't really do live streams well from a Mac right now

Now, you might be able to do it from the Mac Studio. but the application that we use the live stream the show OBS

which is what everyone uses, it just works better on the PC. And so if anyone texts me

I can't reply to them from the PC, which is really annoying. I wish Apple would just release some kind of PC app that you could use to message people in iMessage Maybe not Android screw those guys But at least PC right

Jeez. Like, I don't think that's that odd. I mean, they're including new features

ICloud features on the PC. In fact, they have an ICloud password manager now on the PC

which works great. Now you can, like, create passwords on your PC

that sync with ICloud and will be available on your iPhone and Mac

So they're clearly working on some tools for the PC. So now I've been using like Telegram

I've been telling people to use Telegram so that I can text them from whatever device I use

And it's actually great, man. It's like, I mean, I can't FaceTime with them obviously

But it's really so convenient to be able to text people from no matter from any device

that I have, like my iPhone, my iPad, my Mac, my PC. And I can just send messages back and forth

Signal is also really great. I mean, the group chat features. in both Signal and in Telegram are really good

And I mentioned before, like, Telegram has this really cool feature where you can create, like

one to many text threads or chats. So, like, if you want to follow

like, let's say you're a huge fan of John Mayer. I know a guy who's a huge fan of John Mayer

A little suspect. A little suspect. Loves the guy. Loves John Mayer. John Mayer could start his own Telegram channel

In fact, maybe he has one. And he could just send messages out to everyone who follow

follow them Now they can chat back and they can chat with each other but they can get messages from John Mayer Like that actually kind of useful I mean not if you wanting stuff from John Mayer I mean I don really want anything from John Mayer But there is there a service that I follow that sends out hardware um restock alert So like if you trying to get like a PS5 or like an Xbox series X they text you as soon as those come back in stock at certain retailers and then everyone on the channel gets it It like that actually really handy

So Telegram has that feature. Anyway, back to the story at hand

There are some other features in here in this legislation, the digital marketing or markets act, excuse me

that seem to really be focused on cracking open Apple's hold on their devices and their

marketplaces. So I think part of this legislation would be forcing them to allow alternate app stores

alternate payment systems, and sideloading, which would be crazy. That's something that I would love

to see come to the iPhone and the iPad. So you can install apps that Apple doesn't officially

sanction and approve through iTunes. Because like, I don't know. I said this before. I won't go into the

whole spiel again. But it's like it's your device. If you want to sideload an app on it like you do on the Mac or

you install apps that aren't sanctioned by Apple, they let you do that. Why not allow you to do that on the iPhone

It doesn't make any sense to me. You can do it on the Mac. Why can't you do it on the iPhone? It seems like it would

they should be parity there. So sensitive. I know. That's what they always say, right

There's always like the security stuff. Like, oh, it will make it less secure

I'm like, well, well, the Mac allows it. So clearly you can figure it out

You just don't want to. And I think what they really don't want to do

Obviously is they don't want competing marketplaces. because, and they don't want you to not be able to pay them when you buy an app for the iPhone

Because right now, every single thing that you buy, they get a cut of and they don't want

to relinquish that because it's very profitable for them. So there you go

Just something to follow This could mean if this actually goes into law this could drastically affect the way Apple runs their business And it might mean that they have to open up the iPhone to alternate stores side all sorts of stuff

Yes, Lewis. There's been all kinds of changes. I mean, just this week, Apple's like reader apps like Netflix and Spotify, add links to their own websites for third-party payments

So all these kinds of changes is that, you know, all this scrutiny. I mean, it's not just the EU

it's also here. All these governments are looking at Apple's business and just kind of try to figure out ways

to make them open things up. I'd be interesting if IMSG works with everything

I mean, like the whole idea of it, of IMessage needing to work with WhatsApp or something

I don't quite understand how that would even actually work. I don't either

I don't think the people who are crafting the legislation do either. It doesn't really sound right

that sounds like a lot of engineering work would have to go into that whole process because it

I mean their ecosystem is totally closed and and they they have like their blue bubbles and the green

bubbles and like what bubbles do they have for for what's that purple bubbles I mean like there's a lot of things that have to be thought through like the like the user experience all the different

features so we'll see if this ends up coming to fruition because I imagine that T.C. has got his

his lobbyists in tow greasing some palms in the EU to make sure that this never sees the light of day

but something to follow for sure it's definitely an interesting story