“These techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”
Beeper Mini charged $1.99 a month to put Android users in iMessage group chats with encryption. Apple killed it within days and called it a security fix. The alternative Apple leaves iPhone users is plain SMS to their Android friends, which anyone along the path can read. The same week, the EU signalled iMessage will escape interoperability rules. Apple is protecting the green bubble, not the user.