Allo dev says if iMessage ever comes to Android, it won’t have SMS

When Allo was first announced at Google I/O this year, many long-time Android fans hoped it would finally be the iMessage competitor we’ve always wanted. When it debuted back in September, we discovered it does support SMS but does so in a very weird way so that the person you’re chatting with who doesn’t use Allo sees a random number every time you message them. It’s not exactly intuitive.

Responding to a rumor that Apple is considering bringing iMessage to Android is Justin Uberti, an Allo developer, who believes if the app does make it across the border it won’t support SMS.

In previous tweets before this one, Uberti stated that iMessage is part of platform lock-in for Apple, so he believes that it won’t ever see the light of day on Android. That’s not hard to believe, given that iMessage has caused problems for switchers from iPhone to Android in the past.