• Great points about platform reliance and these are why I decided Messenger was too dangerous (and limited) for us to use.

    Apple's approach with iMessage app extensions is very different - they run as a kind of pure native app, which is called to take control over 95% of the screen for user interaction and then hands back a bundle of data for the message. So Apple preserve user privacy but we aren't running in a weird non-native environment. Much of Touchgram's core logic runs on Mac also and changing it to be "just" a normal iOS app would be very straightforward. We have an in-house testbed app which is just a standard app. Most of the work would just be adding notification support and a bit of UI to replace what iMessage gives us.

    All the other extension mechanisms for different messaging platforms that I've evaluated do so via some kind of cut-down HTML running under control of the messenger app. That's much more limiting and vulnerable.

    You also make a very good point about monetisation control - Apple don't impose any special restrictions on apps inside iMessage - we have similar subscription and marketplace plans to many apps. I've not reviewed FB Messenger's restrictions for a couple of years but unsurprised.

  • Voted!
    Need karma! Please check submission guidelines.
    Paid!
    Why pay twice?