Apple does not want anyone to use Android phones, says WhatsApp CEO 
New Delhi: Tech giants Facebook and Apple have been at a war for quite some time now. Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have openly criticised each others’ companies, no holds barred. The battle got dirty as WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart from the Facebook camp recently launched scathing remarks at the iPhone maker recently while talking on the ‘Big Technology Podcast’.
Ever since Apple brought about its privacy labels and announced that its App Tracking Transparency framework is going to go live soon, several companies especially Facebook have not been pleased with it. Speaking on the podcast, Cathcart had quite a lot to say about the iPhone maker and none of it was good. The WhatsApp CEO called Apple’s privacy labels discriminatory and said that Apple was not in favour of people using Android phones.
“I assume it’s in Apple’s interest to have everyone using an iPhone, I mean, obviously, it is. And you look at a place like the US, most people have an iPhone, and the messaging experience works better on iMessage if everyone else has an iPhone,” Cathcart said.
“It’s certainly in their strategic interest that people not use something like WhatsApp because they want people to not use an Android phone,” he further added.
Talking about privacy labels, Cathcart said that regardless of whatever purpose these labels serve, WhatsApp competes with iMessage (Apple’s own messaging app) and in the US more people use iMessage than WhatsApp. “You don’t see a label for iMessage when you download it because you don’t download it, it’s on your phone to begin with. And so, we were critical of that,” he added.
Remember that Apple had rolled out a special “Labels” page for its own apps that has all the information about what data in-house apps collect. Also, for apps like iMessage that’s already on the iPhone when you buy it and cannot be removed, Apple has labels for these on the website.
Talking about what phone he uses, Cathcart revealed that he uses an Android phone. “Well, I use an Android because if you look at WhatsApp’s user base, we are very Android heavy. I also use an iPad, I’ve used iPhones for many years, but I really want to actually use the product in the way most people are using it, so I use an Android. A lot of people use both or go back and forth because we’re building our products for both and you got to understand them all,” he explained.
When asked about whether Apple sees Facebook as the biggest competitor just like the latter does, Cathcart mentioned that Apple’s main interest is to have everyone using an iPhone. “If people switch to something like WhatsApp or another service it’s easier for their friends to go back and forth between an iPhone or an Android,” said Cathcart According to him, Apple doesn’t want people to use WhatsApp since they want people to use an Android smartphone.
