Apple Uses APIs and Strategic Access Points to Insulate Itself From Competition

B. Apple uses APIs and other critical access points in the smartphone ecosystem to control the behavior and innovation of third parties in order to insulate itself from competition

i. Messaging: Apple protects its smartphone monopoly by degrading and undermining cross-platform messaging apps and rival smartphones

80. Apple undermines cross-platform messaging to reinforce “obstacle[s] to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” Apple could have made a better cross-platform messaging experience itself by creating iMessage for Android but concluded that doing so “will hurt us more than help us.” Apple therefore continues to impede innovation in smartphone messaging, even though doing so sacrifices the profits Apple would earn from increasing the value of the iPhone to users, because it helps build and maintain its monopoly power.

81. Messaging apps allow smartphone users to communicate with friends, family, and other contacts and are often the primary way users interact with their smartphones. In Apple’s own words, messaging apps are “a central artery through which the full range of customer experience flows.”

82. Smartphone messaging apps operate using “protocols,” which are the systems that enable communication and determine the features available when users interact with each other via messaging apps.

83. One important protocol used by messaging apps is SMS.[1] SMS offers a broad user network, but limited functionality. For example, all mobile phones can receive SMS messages, but SMS does not support modern messaging features, such as large files, edited messages, or reactions like a “thumbs up” or a heart.

84. Many messaging apps—such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Signal— use proprietary, internet-based protocols, which are sometimes referred to as OTT (“over the top”) protocols. OTT messaging typically involves more secure and advanced features, such as encryption, typing indicators, read receipts, the ability to share rich media, and disappearing or ephemeral messages. While all mobile phones can send and receive SMS messages, OTT only works between users who sign up for and communicate through the same messaging app. As a result, a user cannot send an OTT message to a friend unless the friend also uses the same messaging app.

85. Apple makes third-party messaging apps on the iPhone worse generally and relative to Apple Messages, Apple’s own messaging app. By doing so, Apple is knowingly and deliberately degrading quality, privacy, and security for its users. For example, Apple designates the APIs needed to implement SMS as “private,” meaning third-party developers have no technical means of accessing them and are prohibited from doing so under Apple’s contractual agreements with developers. As a result, third-party messaging apps cannot combine the “text to anyone” functionality of SMS with the advanced features of OTT messaging. Instead, if a user wants to send somebody a message in a third-party messaging app, they must first confirm whether the person they want to talk to has the same messaging app and, if not, convince that person to download and use a new messaging app. By contrast, if an Apple Messages user wants to send somebody a message, they just type their phone number into the “To:” field and send the message because Apple Messages incorporates SMS and OTT messaging.

86. Apple prohibits third-party developers from incorporating other important features into their messaging apps as well. For example, third-party messaging apps cannot continue operating in the background when the app is closed, which impairs functionality like message delivery confirmation. And when users receive video calls, third-party messaging apps cannot access the iPhone camera to allow users to preview their appearance on video before answering a call. Apple Messages incorporates these features.

87. If third-party messaging apps could incorporate these features, they would be more valuable and attractive to users, and the iPhone would be more valuable to Apple in the short term. For example, by incorporating SMS, users would avoid the hassle of convincing someone to download a separate app before sending them a message. Third-party messaging apps could also offer the ability to schedule SMS messages to be sent in the future, suggest replies, and support robust multi-device use on smartphones, tablets, and computers—as they have already done on Android.

88. Moreover, messaging apps benefit from significant network effects—as more people use the app, there are more people to communicate with through the app, which makes the app more valuable and in turn attracts even more users. Incorporating SMS would help thirdparty messaging apps grow their network and attract more users. Instead, Apple limits the reach of third-party messaging apps and reinforces network effects that benefit Apple.

89. Recently, Apple has stated that it plans to incorporate more advanced features for cross-platform messaging in Apple Messages by adopting a 2019 version of the RCS protocol (which combines aspects of SMS and OTT). Apple has not done so yet, and regardless it would not cure Apple’s efforts to undermine third-party messaging apps because third-party messaging apps will still be prohibited from incorporating RCS just as they are prohibited from incorporating SMS. Moreover, the RCS standard will continue to improve over time, and if Apple does not support later versions of RCS, cross-platform messaging using RCS could soon be broken on iPhones anyway.

90. In addition to degrading the quality of third-party messaging apps, Apple affirmatively undermines the quality of rival smartphones. For example, 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. This signals to users that rival smartphones are lower quality because the experience of messaging friends and family who do not own iPhones is worse—even though Apple, not the rival smartphone, is the cause of that degraded user experience. Many non-iPhone users also experience social stigma, exclusion, and blame for “breaking” chats where other participants own iPhones. This effect is particularly powerful for certain demographics, like teenagers—where the iPhone’s share is 85 percent, according to one survey. This social pressure reinforces switching costs and drives users to continue buying iPhones—solidifying Apple’s smartphone dominance not because Apple has made its smartphone better, but because it has made communicating with other smartphones worse.

91. Apple recognizes that its conduct harms users and makes it more difficult to switch smartphones. For example, in 2013, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering explained that supporting cross-platform OTT messaging in Apple Messages “would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.” In March 2016, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing forwarded an email to CEO Tim Cook making the same point: “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us.”

92. In 2022, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was asked whether Apple would fix iPhone-toAndroid messaging. “It’s tough,” the questioner implored Mr. Cook, “not to make it personal but I can’t send my mom certain videos.” Mr. Cook’s response? “Buy your mom an iPhone.”

93. Recently, Apple blocked a third-party developer from fixing the broken crossplatform messaging experience in Apple Messages and providing end-to-end encryption for messages between Apple Messages and Android users. By rejecting solutions that would allow for cross-platform encryption, Apple continues to make iPhone users’ less secure than they could otherwise be.

ii. Smartwatches: Apple protects its smartphone monopoly by impeding the development of cross-platform smartwatches

94. Apple uses smartwatches, a costly accessory, to prevent iPhone customers from choosing other phones. Having copied the idea of a smartwatch from third-party developers, Apple now prevents those developers from innovating and limits the Apple Watch to the iPhone to prevent a negative “impact to iPhone sales.”

95. Smartwatches are wrist-worn devices with an interactive display and accompanying apps that let users perform a variety of functions, including monitoring health data, responding to messages and notifications, performing mobile payments, and, of course, telling time. Smartwatches must generally be paired with a smartphone to operate and unlock their full functionality, such as receiving and responding to emails and text messages or answering phone calls. Because of the significant cost of buying a smartwatch, users are less willing to choose a smartphone if it is not compatible with their smartwatch.

96. Apple’s smartwatch—Apple Watch—is only compatible with the iPhone. So, if Apple can steer a user towards buying an Apple Watch, it becomes more costly for that user to purchase a different kind of smartphone because doing so requires the user to abandon their costly Apple Watch and purchase a new, Android-compatible smartwatch.

97. By contrast, cross-platform smartwatches can reduce iPhone users’ dependence on Apple’s proprietary hardware and software. If a user purchases a third-party smartwatch that is compatible with the iPhone and other smartphones, they can switch from the iPhone to another smartphone (or vice versa) by simply downloading the companion app on their new phone and connecting to their smartwatch via Bluetooth. Moreover, as users interact with a smartwatch, e.g., by accessing apps from their smartwatch instead of their smartphone, users rely less on a smartphone’s proprietary software and more on the smartwatch itself. This also makes it easier for users to switch from an iPhone to a different smartphone.

98. Apple recognizes that driving users to purchase an Apple Watch, rather than a third-party cross-platform smartwatch, helps drive iPhone sales and reinforce the moat around its smartphone monopoly. For example, in a 2019 email the Vice President of Product Marketing for Apple Watch acknowledged that Apple Watch “may help prevent iPhone customers from switching.” Surveys have reached similar conclusions: many users say the other devices linked to their iPhone are the reason they do not switch to Android.

99. Apple also recognizes that making Apple Watch compatible with Android would “remove[an] iPhone differentiator.”

100. Apple uses its control of the iPhone, including its technical and contractual control of critical APIs, to degrade the functionality of third-party cross-platform smartwatches in at least three significant ways: First, Apple deprives iPhone users with third-party smartwatches of the ability to respond to notifications. Second, Apple inhibits third-party smartwatches from maintaining a reliable connection with the iPhone. And third, Apple undermines the performance of third-party smartwatches that connect directly with a cellular network. In doing so, Apple constrains user choice and crushes innovation that might help fill in the moat around Apple’s smartphone monopoly.

101. The ability to respond to notifications, e.g., new messages or app alerts, directly from a smartwatch is one of the top considerations for smartwatch purchasers—and one of the most used product features when it is available. According to Apple’s own market research, the ability to “[s]end and receive text messages from social and messaging apps” is a critical feature for a smartwatch. In 2013, when Apple started offering users the ability to connect their iPhones with third-party smartwatches, Apple provided third-party smartwatch developers with access to various APIs related to the Apple Notification Center Service, Calendar, Contacts, and Geolocation. The following year, Apple introduced the Apple Watch and began limiting third-party access to new and improved APIs for smartwatch functionality. For example, Apple prevents third-party smartwatches from accessing APIs related to more advanced Actionable Notifications, so iPhone users cannot respond to notifications using a third-party smartwatch. Instead, Apple provides third-party smartwatches access to more limited APIs that do not allow users to respond to a message, accept a calendar invite, or take other actions available on Apple Watch.

102. A reliable Bluetooth connection is essential for a smartwatch to connect wirelessly with a smartphone, and thereby function as a companion to the user’s smartphone and unlock its full functionality. But Apple prohibits third-party smartwatch developers from maintaining a connection even if a user accidentally turns off Bluetooth in the iPhone’s control center. Apple gives its own Apple Watch that functionality, however, because Apple recognizes that users frequently disable Bluetooth on their iPhone without realizing that doing so disconnects their watch. As a result, iPhone users have a worse experience when they try to use a third-party smartwatch with their iPhone. Apple also requires users to turn on “Background App Refresh” and disable the battery-saving “Low Power Mode” in their iPhone settings for third-party smartwatches to remain consistently connected to their companion app, which is necessary to allow a user’s iPhone and their smartwatch to update and share data about the weather or exercise tracking, even though Apple does not impose similar requirements for Apple Watch.

103. Cellular-enabled smartwatches incorporate the ability to connect directly to a cellular network, allowing users to make calls, send messages, and download data even if their smartwatch is not paired to a smartphone. Cellular-enabled smartwatches are popular with consumers, making up approximately 20 percent of Apple Watch sales. Apple Watch users can use the same phone number for their smartphone and smartwatch when connected to the cellular network. As a result, messages are delivered to both the user’s smartphone and smartwatch, providing an integrated messaging experience. Although it is technologically feasible for Apple to allow an iPhone user with a third-party smartwatch to do the same, Apple instead requires these users to disable Apple’s iMessage service on the iPhone in order to use the same phone number for both devices. This is a non-starter for most iPhone users. In practice, iPhone users with a third-party smartwatch must maintain separate phone numbers for the two devices, worsening their user experience, and may miss out on receiving messages sent to their primary iPhone number.

iii. Digital Wallets: Apple restricts cross-platform digital wallets on the iPhone, reinforcing barriers to consumers switching to rival smartphones

104. Apple recognizes that paying for products and services with a digital wallet will eventually become “something people do every day of their lives.” But Apple has used its control over app creation, including its technical and contractual control over API access, to effectively block third-party developers from creating digital wallets on the iPhone with tap-topay functionality, which is an important feature of a digital wallet for smartphones. As a result, Apple maintains complete control over how users make tap-to-pay payments with their iPhone. Apple also deprives users of the benefits and innovations third-party wallets would provide so that it can protect “Apple’s most important and successful business, iPhone.”

105. Digital wallets are apps that allow a user to store and use passes and credentials, including credit cards, personal identification, movie tickets, and car keys, in a single app. For example, digital wallets allow users to make in-person payments by tapping their device on a payment terminal rather than tapping or swiping a physical credit card. Digital wallets can also be used for transactions in mobile apps and mobile websites.

106. Absent Apple’s conduct, cross-platform digital wallets could also be used to manage and pay for subscriptions and in-app purchases.

107. Apple Wallet is Apple’s proprietary digital wallet on the iPhone. Apple Wallet incorporates Apple’s proprietary payment system Apple Pay, which processes digital payments on the web, in apps, and at merchant points of sale.

108. Today, Apple Wallet offers users a way to make these payments using their iPhone. But Apple envisions that Apple Wallet will ultimately supplant multiple functions of physical wallets to become a single app for shopping, digital keys, transit, identification, travel, entertainment, and more. As users rely on Apple Wallet for payments and beyond, it “drive[s] more sales of iPhone and increase[s] stickiness to the Apple ecosystem” because Apple Wallet is only available on the iPhone. Thus, switching to a different smartphone requires leaving behind the familiarity of an everyday app, setting up a new digital wallet, and potentially losing access to certain credentials and personal data stored in Apple Wallet.

109. Cross-platform digital wallets would offer an easier, more seamless, and potentially more secure way for users to switch from the iPhone to another smartphone. For example, if third-party developers could create cross-platform wallets, users transitioning away from the iPhone could continue to use the same wallet, with the same cards, IDs, payment histories, peer-to-peer payment contacts, and other information, making it easier to switch smartphones. And because many users already use apps created by their preferred financial institutions, if these financial institutions offered digital wallets, then users would have access to new apps and technologies without needing to share their private financial data with additional third parties, including Apple. In the short term, these improved features would make the iPhone more attractive to users and profitable for Apple.

110. Accordingly, the absence of cross-platform digital wallets with tap-to-pay capability on the iPhone makes it harder for iPhone users to purchase a different smartphone.

111. The most important function for attracting users to a digital wallet for smartphones is the ability to offer tap-to-pay, i.e., the ability to make in-person payments by tapping your smartphone on a payment terminal. Apple uses its control over app creation and API access to selectively prohibit developers from accessing the near-field communication (NFC) hardware needed to provide tap-to-pay through a digital wallet app.

112. Apple Wallet is the only app on the iPhone that can use NFC to facilitate tap-topay. While Apple actively encourages banks, merchants, and other parties to participate in Apple Wallet, Apple simultaneously exerts its smartphone monopoly to block these same partners from developing better payment products and services for iPhone users.

113. Apple also uses its smartphone monopoly to extract payments from banks, which need to access customers that use digital wallets on iPhones. Since Apple first launched Apple Pay—long before it achieved meaningful adoption—Apple has charged issuing banks 15 basis points (0.15 percent) for each credit card transaction mediated by Apple Pay. Payment apps from Samsung and Google are free to issuing banks. Apple’s fees are a significant expense for issuing banks and cut into funding for features and benefits that banks might otherwise offer smartphone users. The volume of impacted transactions is large and growing. A U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report estimates that Apple Pay facilitated nearly $200 billion in transactions in the United States in 2022. And the report goes on to explain that “analysts estimate that the value of digital wallet tap-to-pay transactions will grow by over 150 percent by 2028.”

114. Multiple app developers have sought direct NFC access for their payment or wallet apps. Yet Apple prohibits these developers from incorporating tap-to-pay functionality in their apps for fear that doing so would “be one way to disable [A]pple [P]ay trivially,” leading to the “proliferation of other payment apps” that might operate cross-platform and ultimately undermine Apple’s smartphone monopoly.

115. There is no technical limitation on providing NFC access to developers seeking to offer third-party wallets. For example, Apple allows merchants to use the iPhone’s NFC antenna to accept tap-to-pay payments from consumers. Apple also acknowledges it is technically feasible to enable an iPhone user to set another app (e.g., a bank’s app) as the default payment app, and Apple intends to allow this functionality in Europe.

116. Apple further impedes the adoption of digital wallets by restricting others from offering the same ability to authenticate digital payment options on online checkout pages. By limiting the ability of third-party wallets to provide a simple, fast, and comprehensive solution to online purchasing, Apple further undermines the viability of such wallets.

117. Apple also blocks other digital wallets from serving as an alternative to Apple’s in-app payment (IAP). This prevents these wallets from increasing their attractiveness and improving the overall user experience on the iPhone by offering consumer experiences that may include use of rewards points in purchasing, digital receipts, returns, loyalty programs, and digital coupons for purchases of relevant subscriptions and digital goods. Apple even prohibits developers on its App Store from notifying users in the developer’s app that cheaper prices for services are available using alternative digital wallets or direct payments.

118. Apple’s conduct reflects its knowing degradation of the experience of its own users by blocking them from accessing wallets that would have better or different features. In so doing, Apple cements reliance on the iPhone and also imposes fees on a large and critical slice of all digital wallet NFC transactions, which the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates will grow to $451 billion by 2028.

[1] Following industry practice, throughout this complaint, “SMS” refers to both SMS and MMS (“multimedia messaging service”). MMS is a companion protocol to SMS that allows for group messages and messages with basic multimedia content, such as small file sharing.