Apple and Meta accused each other of sabotaging messenger compatibility

Apple and Meta✴ accused each other of trying to sabotage the requirement put forward by the European Union authorities to ensure compatibility of instant messaging systems. According to Apple, Meta✴ is trying to violate the privacy of users of its devices; Meta✴ claims that Apple is preventing the creation of messenger compatibility mechanisms.

Image source: apple.com

Last year, the Digital Markets Act came into force in the European Union. According to one of its demands, Apple is obliged to allow competitors and other third-party application developers to interact with its own services; failure to comply with this rule faces a fine of 10% of global annual turnover. Meta✴ has sent 15 interoperability requests to Apple, more than any other company. But Apple is in no hurry to give her a substantive answer.

«In many cases, Meta✴ attempts to change functionality in ways that raise privacy and security concerns for users, and this appears to be completely unrelated to the use cases for external Meta✴ devices such as [Ray-Ban] Meta smart glasses ✴ and [mixed reality headsets] Meta✴ Quest. If Apple had to accommodate all of these requests, Facebook✴, Instagram✴ and WhatsApp would give Meta✴ the ability to read every message and email on a user’s device, see every outgoing and incoming phone call, scan all their photos, view files and calendar events, record all his passwords and much more,” Apple said and recalled that Meta✴ has been repeatedly fined in Europe for privacy violations.

«In fact, Apple says it doesn’t believe in compatibility. Every time Apple is accused of anti-competitive behavior, they defend themselves by citing privacy concerns that really have no basis,” Meta✴ responded. In September, the European Commission promised to issue clarification on how Apple should open its ecosystem to competitors, and the day before the agency published its preliminary findings, inviting interested parties to submit feedback on the document by January 9.

Apple should clearly outline the steps, timelines, criteria and considerations it will apply or take into account when receiving compatibility requests from app developers. Apple will have to provide developers with regular updates and give and receive feedback on compatibility decisions; a procedure will be developed to overcome technical differences with Apple. The company will have to reveal the mechanisms for how the notification function works – they must be on par with the privileges that the Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro and any other future devices from the manufacturer have. The final version of the document will be published in March 2025.