Apple kept iMessage off Android to keep teens on iPhones, emails show

Americans don't use WhatsApp because of a decision Apple made in 2013. We only know about it because the emails came out in court, and the whole thing came down to keeping your kids off Android. It started with Eddy Cue, the guy who runs Apple's services. That April he emailed the team saying Apple really needed to put iMessage on Android. Google was reportedly trying to buy WhatsApp for $1 billion at the time, and Cue's pitch was that Apple already had the best messaging app, so why not make it the one the whole world used. Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, shut it down. He asked how Apple was supposed to get Android users to leave WhatsApp when they didn't even have iPhone friends. So back in 2013, the guy running iPhone software was basically admitting WhatsApp already owned…

📝 Apple gave WhatsApp the world to keep American teens on iPhone In 2013 Apple could have put iMessage on every phone on the planet, and its software chief shot the idea down in an email because, as he put it, it would make it easier for parents to buy their kids Android phones. We only know this because those emails came out in court. Once you read them, a lot of stuff about your phone starts to make sense, starting with why your group chat is blue while your cousin in São Paulo lives on WhatsApp. The email that killed it Eddy Cue runs Apple's services, and in 2013 he wrote to the team that "we really need to bring iMessage to Android." Google was reportedly ready to pay $1 billion for WhatsApp at the time. Cue's worry was pretty simple: if Apple didn't own messaging on Android,…