Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has weighed in on the green vs blue bubble debate, touting WhatsApp as a superior option.
Apple has been under increased pressure over its iMessage platform and its lack of interoperability with Android. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg highlighted the benefits WhatsApp provides, including similar features as iMessage:
WhatsApp is far more private and secure than iMessage, with end-to-end encryption that works across both iPhones and Android, including group chats. With WhatsApp you can also set all new chats to disappear with the tap of a button. And last year we introduced end-to-end encrypted backups too. All of which iMessage still doesn’t have.
While iMessage provides a host of features, such as encryption, read receipts, file transfer, group management, and more when texting between Apple devices, it defaults to basic SMS when texting with Android. Google has repeatedly asked Apple to implement RCS for cross-platform texting since RCS is the successor to SMS and provides the same features as iMessage. Despite the pressure, Apple has resisted pressure to implement RCS, with CEO Tim Cook making it clear he’d rather people just buy iPhones than worry about iOS/Android compatibility.
While Zuckerberg may want to position WhatsApp as an alternative to iMessage and a way to overcome compatibility issues, our recommendation is to use Signal instead. Signal offers many of the same features as both iMessage and WhatsApp and likewise provides a way to overcome iOS/Android compatibility issues. Unlike WhatsApp, however, Signal is run by a non-profit and is considered one of the most secure ways of communicating, and is used by the EU Commission, US Senate, and some US military units.
