The Greatest App of All Time Day 18: Google Maps vs. iMessage

March 19, 2024

3 min read

It’s Day 18 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time and we’re saying goodbye to one of our biggest contestants! WhatsApp defeated Instagram in yesterday’s tournament. Today, we have the world’s biggest maps app going up against the bain of Android users’ existence.

If you’re just tuning in, you can read all about our selection criteria for this historic contest right here. Check out the full bracket of contestants embedded below. And as always, if you think we missed your personal favorite app of all time, yell at us in the comments. Now, let’s get into today’s contestants.

No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery”

Here’s what we said about Google Maps in the first round of our bracket:

With over 1 billion monthly active users, our first contestant is the undisputed king of the maps apps. Launched in 2005, Google Maps is one of the oldest candidates in the competition but has shown no signs of slowing down in its advanced age. If there is a mobile app that can be said to have made the world a better place, it’s hard to argue with this one. The days of printing out MapQuest directions officially ended when this bad boy hit the scene. And even Apple hasn’t been able to catch up.

And here’s what we said about iMessage:

With over a billion users, our first contestant is the envy of Android users everywhere and a thorn in Google’s side. Since its launch in 2011, iMessage has never really been considered the most advanced or most secure messaging platform but it’s to the point and the one that’s on every iPhone. Perhaps most importantly, it weeds out non-users by displaying them as green bubbles. This has become a ridiculous status symbol for petty snobs and seemingly every few months Google tries a new tactic to get Apple to open up iMessage or play nice.

But just because it’s become a status symbol doesn’t mean iMessage is a bad messenger. It has plenty of features like memoji, location sharing, reactions, apps, and stickers. But more importantly, Apple recently deployed a new ‘post-quantum encryption protocol’ that’s designed to be future-proof for the coming days when quantum computing can crack today’s standards. At the time of release, cryptography experts called it “overkill” in a good way.

So, reader, what’ll it be? Does iMessage make you so green with envy that you want to send Google Maps to the next round? Or does your blue bubble fill you with such a feeling of superiority, you simply must rub it in everyone else’s face?