Google has reportedly made several references to Apple’s iPhone 14, iOS 16 and Apple’s reluctance to adopt RCS messaging during its latest launch event. At the new event yesterday, Google unveiled the Pixel Watch, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and revealed new details about the Pixel tablet. During this event, some of the keynote speakers couldn’t resist mocking Apple’s previous releases of new devices.
Brian Rakowski, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro: “Pixel has always been a leader in smartphone innovation. We take it as a compliment when others in the industry follow in our footsteps, like the always-on display and the At a Glance feature, which puts useful information on your lock screen. His comments allude to iOS 16’s Live Activities and iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on screen feature.”
“We introduced the Crash Monitoring feature three years ago, along with other important ways to keep users safe, such as Safety Check and Emergency Share.” Last month, Apple introduced Car Crash Detection in iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro and the latest Apple Watch, while iOS 16 brought Safety Check to users to keep them safe. Rakowski concluded, “It’s an amazing track record that they are all on groundbreaking features pioneered on the Pixel.”
One of the biggest differences between Apple and Google is Apple’s refusal to adopt RCS messaging support, the latest and increasingly common messaging standard. Despite Google’s public calls for Apple to adopt RCS, Apple continues to limit messaging on its devices to the SMS standard and iMessage. Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to these calls, saying that this is not something Apple users are asking the company to do.
In this launch, Google is again pressuring Apple to change direction. “RCS is the industry standard for modern messaging, and it has been adopted by most industries. We want every device manufacturer to embrace this standard and adopt RCS so that every smartphone user has better access to messaging capabilities.”
