Tim Cook ‘Solves’ Android Problems By Asking Users To ‘Buy Your Mom An iPhone’

A unified texting design between iPhone and Android users is apparently not on Apple’s roadmap. Many have been calling for smartphone makers to shake hands on merging the green with the blue, but it would seem that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been sitting on the solution all along: just get your mom a dang iPhone!

“Buy your mom an iPhone" were the exact tongue-in-cheek words uttered by Cook at Vox Media’s Code 2022 just as Apple announced its new iPhone 14 range. The advice would seem like an obvious one to hand out from the man who runs the whole show. However, Apple’s resistance to integrating Rich Communication Services (RCS) technology into its phones has pushed people to head to third-party apps such as WhatsApp.

RCS is an upgraded version of the SMS system and aims to provide a richer experience, allowing people to see ‘texting’ dots, higher-quality videos, photos, and read receipts for messages sent via a telecommunications provider. Apple has been resistant to stepping beyond its borders in the realm of iMessage, and its reluctance has even gotten Google involved. Last month, the company created a public Android website that urged Apple to switch over to RCS.

Samsung, incidentally, has led the way in RCS messaging while Apple is adamant about providing iMessage and SMS as its default, pushing families to work with its ecosystem during their chats.

As tricky as this has made texting to be, it’s hard to deny that the continuous march to its own drum is also what sets it apart from the rest.

[via CNET and MacRumors, cover image via Austin Community College, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)]