iMessage for Android would immediately be abused to spam iMessage users, something that’s nearly impossible to do today. Apple issues server-side hardware bans any time an Apple device sends spam via iMessage, which makes it stunningly expensive to spam iMessage users - but since Android is an ‘open’ platform, no such protections are possible to require or enforce there, as they can simply be rooted around.
I expect Apple would release iMessage for Android in a heartbeat if the effort were invested to make it truly user-proof with crypto-locked bootloaders and proper defenses against rooting. However, that day is not today, and that day seems unlikely to ever occur for the wider Android ecosystem. So iMessage likely won’t either.
(Footnote: This thread and its usual focus on “iMessage should be open to non-Apple hardware” has been repeated on HN many times a year for the past several years. No one has yet offered an alternative solution to “identifiable Apple hardware only, with hardware bans for anyone that spams” that would as effectively protect iMessage against spammer. Especially before the first message is sent, and without heuristic false positives.)
You can already send SMS to iPhones. Why do you think iMessage spam (which can be filtered better than SMS by Apple) would significantly change the experience?
How does WhatsApp deal with spam? It doesn't seem to be much of a problem there, in my experience. If I ever get spam text messages they invariably come via SMS.
Could you provide the rest of your reply? There's multiple possible discussions that could stem from the facts you've presented, but without your conclusion drawn from them it's not clear to me how to proceed. (If you'd rather not, no worries.)
I expect Apple would release iMessage for Android in a heartbeat if the effort were invested to make it truly user-proof with crypto-locked bootloaders and proper defenses against rooting. However, that day is not today, and that day seems unlikely to ever occur for the wider Android ecosystem. So iMessage likely won’t either.
(Footnote: This thread and its usual focus on “iMessage should be open to non-Apple hardware” has been repeated on HN many times a year for the past several years. No one has yet offered an alternative solution to “identifiable Apple hardware only, with hardware bans for anyone that spams” that would as effectively protect iMessage against spammer. Especially before the first message is sent, and without heuristic false positives.)