Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to make Apple change people’s text messages as part of his antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday filed an antitrust suit against Apple, accusing the company of illegally holding a monopoly over smartphones by “selectively imposing contractual restrictions on” and “withholding critical access points from” developers.
Apple said that if the suit was successful, it would “set a dangerous precedent.”
The DOJ alleges Apple has taken several “anti-competitive” steps, including suppressing mobile cloud streaming services, diminishing the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches. and excluding cross-platform messaging apps.
Specifically, Garland called out the famous green text bubbles that iPhone users receive when exchanging messages with people who do not also have iPhones.
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“Apple’s anti-competitive conduct also includes making it more difficult for iPhone users to message with users of non-Apple products. It does this by diminishing the functionality of its own messaging app and by diminishing the functionality of third-party messaging apps,” he said during a press conference.
Messages exchanged with non-iPhone users are not encrypted, videos sent between them appear pixelated and grainy and do not allow users to edit messages or see typing indicators, Garland said.
“As a result, iPhone users perceive rival smartphones as being lower quality because the experience of messaging friends and family who do not own iPhones is worse even though Apple is the one responsible for breaking cross-platform messaging,” Garland said.
In a statement to Newsweek, Apple said the DOJ’s suit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.”
“If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple—where hardware, software, and services intersect. It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology,” the statement reads.
In the complaint filed Thursday, the DOJ pointed to the “green text messages” as an example of the company creating a monopoly.
“If an iPhone user messages a non-iPhone user in Apple Messages—the default messaging app on an iPhone—then the text appears to the iPhone user as a green bubble and incorporates limited functionality: the conversation is not encrypted, videos are pixelated and grainy, and users cannot edit messages or see typing indicators,” the complaint reads.
The DOJ alleges that non-iPhone users experience social stigma, exclusion and blame for “breaking” chats, an effect that is particularly powerful for groups like teenagers, according to the complaint.
Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Justice via its media contact form for comment.
Garland’s announcement drew praise from social media users.
“Big news for the non-iPhone users we all hate having in our group chats,” posted journalist Aaron Rupar in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Apple has engaged in a pattern of gatekeeper conduct that harms competition and consumers alike. Apple has earned the DOJ’s scrutiny and accountability for its conduct,” wrote Brendan Carr, a Federal Communications Commission commissioner.
“Attorney General Merrick Garland says JUSTICE FOR GREEN BUBBLES in Apple antitrust complaint,” posted journalist Makena Kelly.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.