WhatsApp’s 2 billion users can look enviously at Apple’s latest iMessage update, which puts the rival messenger well ahead. Worse, seriously misleading comments from Mark Zuckerberg last week suggest he doesn’t understand how far WhatsApp has now fallen behind. If you use WhatsApp on an iPhone, here’s why you should be concerned. Somewhat ironically, Apple’s iMessage has been notably absent among messengers reporting growth surges as millions reportedly quit WhatsApp. Ironically, because the public fracas between Apple and Facebook over WhatsApp and iMessage privacy labels was one of the initial triggers for the backlash, with iMessage coming out on top. The reason we’re all writing about Telegram and Signal and not iMessage is obvious—it’s for Apple users only, it doesn’t extend cross platform. But iMessage is an exceptional platform, arguably with the best architecture of any, beating Signal, Wickr, Threema, Line, to say nothing of WhatsApp, Telegram and Android Messages.“I want to highlight that we increasingly see Apple as one of our biggest competitors,” Mark Zuckerberg told analysts in January. “iMessage is a key linchpin of their ecosystem—which is why iMessage is the most used messaging service in the U. S.”Zuckerberg was using iMessage as an example of what he says is Apple “using their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work.” Facebook’s issue is the imminent privacy update that will offer Apple’s iOS users an opt-out from the device tracking that drives a critical part of its advertising business model. “Apple may say that they're doing this to help people,” Zuckerberg complained, “but the moves clearly track their competitive interests.”But on that same call, Zuckerberg also showed how little he (or the person crafting his comments) understands about the innovations that have put iMessage well ahead of WhatsApp. “iMessage stores non-end-to-end encrypted backups of your messages by default unless you disable iCloud,” Zuckerberg said. “So, Apple and governments have the ability to access most people's messages. So, when it comes to what matters most—protecting people's messages, I think that WhatsApp is clearly superior.”Those comments were very misleading. It’s actually WhatsApp that has an issue with “non-end-to-end encrypted backups” in the cloud, whether from an iPhone or Android. iMessage did have this issue, but it was addressed in 2017 with iOS 11. With the introduction of “Messages in iCloud,” Apple fixed a problem no other mainstream messenger has cracked, extending end-to-end encryption to cloud backups.“iMessage is currently the only messaging app that supports syncing messages across multiple devices while still maintaining end-to-end encryption,” says Talal Haj Bakry, one of the security researchers behind the infamous iOS clipboard disclosure.


All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/02/06/whatsapp-beaten-by-new-imessage-update-for-apple-iphone-users/


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