The ongoing cold war between Apple and Facebook that has escalated in recent months, with the CEO of each company taking veiled and not-so-veiled photos of the other about questions about privacy and user data, not only generates excellent news copy and lots of grinding for tech bloggers. It is also a matter of great importance to ordinary consumers, as it is their data and privacy that is at stake in the way Apple designs its hardware and services, and in the beliefs of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about these topics. In yet another example of how this is all much more than just a dispute between Facebook and Apple, we noted in late January that Facebook is rumored to be preparing a lawsuit against the iPhone maker, believed to focus on the rules of the Apple App Store. that competitors often try to claim that it puts them at a disadvantage.
While it has become quite common for the tech press to criticize Facebook these days and attribute a kind of guilty frame until proven innocent to almost everything the social media giant does, I would like to take this opportunity to do what it will do. no doubt it will be an unpopular statement, by way of rejection of this “Apple: Good; Facebook: Bad motive ”that seems to irrationally color everything written about any of the companies. More specifically, my focus is Facebook Messenger and how it compares to Apple’s own Messages app. I’m a long-time Apple user, and I have no qualms about praising the things it does that haven’t gone mainstream (like Apple TV +), but I want to state, emphatically, that I think Facebook Messenger actually does at least five things better than Apple’s messaging product.
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As with any consumer electronic product, service, or application, needs will vary among users, meaning this is not a one-size-fits-all argument that one of these messaging services is superior to the other. What I will say about my most important point, however, is that the distinctions between these two companies are not really as black and white as people try to make them be. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some people claim that Apple’s Messages app is one of the few things that keeps them tied to the Apple ecosystem. I keep using Facebook Messenger by default every time, just to dive into this, because:
Universality, no phone number required. I am a journalist and I have used Facebook Messenger to contact so many sources, from people to companies, that there is no way I can quantify how many. No need for a phone number or waiting for someone to reply to an email, assuming they would even see it! Everyone gets on Facebook, but the vast majority of people and businesses still maintain Facebook Pages, which is great for someone like me.
The ease of reaching companies. In fact, the ability to quickly send messages to just about any company in the world is pretty great. As noted above, I’ve often done this for professional reasons, but personal apps are numerous too – I have a message in my Facebook Messenger inbox right now, in fact that’s an answer to a question I posted to a local restaurant. When I was still traveling long before the coronavirus, I was also pinging hotels and the like all the time via Facebook Messenger. You can do this in a much, much more limited way with Apple’s Messages app, but in my opinion, it takes a lot more work on your part than it should to find companies that allow you to use the Messages app to communicate with them.
Spam – more specifically, the lack of it. Your experience may be different than mine, but I get an order of magnitude more spam through Apple’s Messages app than through Facebook Messenger. Here’s one I got through the Apple app over the weekend (without the inclusion of the certainly dubious link, obviously). It reads: “Amazon: Congratulations Andy, you came second in today’s drawing for Amazon Earpods! Click on the link to arrange delivery «. No, thanks. Meanwhile, the spam that I have managed to receive via Facebook Messenger has disappeared quite nicely in the app’s ‘other’ folder / dump for anything you don’t send to your main inbox.
Deleted messages. I have a very important (to me) ongoing chat thread open on Facebook Messenger. It’s between me and a loved one, and oddly enough, Facebook’s habit of making things almost impossible to eliminate serves me very well in this case. Whereas if I deleted this thread on my iPhone that’s it, it pretty much disappeared at that point. Facebook, on the other hand, still clings to deleted messages in an easily accessible archive and, again, since it’s a loved one I’m talking about here, I like knowing that it would still be there, and that I will always have it.
Synchronizing. This is a minor issue, compared to all of the above, but I completely disregard the way Apple’s Messages app shares notifications with me. Someone text me, I get a notification on my iPhone. Even after replying to the message there, I get the same notification again when I turn on my MacBook Air, as well as other Apple devices. I’m sure it’s a setting that I can’t be bothered to deal with, but I’d rather have these things handled like Facebook Messenger does. I reply to a message and… the message, you know, no longer shows as new, even when I open Facebook Messenger on other devices.
Of course, we can’t point to all of the above without pointing out Facebook’s extremely poor record on privacy for inclusion in the discussion. For some of you, it doesn’t matter, even if you agree with everything else I’ve said, the privacy issue is a deal breaker, which is perfectly understandable, especially considering things like recent news that Facebook saves. the links that you pass on to others. people within Messenger. On the other hand, some of you who feel this way turn around and post to Twitter endlessly, sharing your thoughts, feelings, and preferences with literally everyone publicly in that way, which seems pretty inconsistent intellectually, if you ask me.
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Andy is a reporter from Memphis who also contributes to outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he’s not writing about tech, he can be found hunched over protectively over his burgeoning vinyl collection, as well as minding his Whovianism and bingeing on a variety of TV shows he probably doesn’t like.
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