Debugger
Why Our Devices Stopped Playing Nice With One Another
Walled gardens aren’t the limitless digital future we were promised
Science fiction has long created the expectation that we would eventually be able to make a video call from any device, to anyone in the world, with just the flick of a wrist.
But no visionary writer predicted what that would actually mean, circa 2019: Installing six separate messaging apps on your phone and five video-calling tools, none of which work together. Sure we can video call, Star Trek-style — but first, we have to decide whether we’re calling on Skype, Messenger, Snap, WhatsApp, or FaceTime. The magic of technology brought us the ability to summon a car from the internet and ride with a stranger to any destination, but I still can’t figure out if I’ll ever be able to get my mum to call me on Google Duo instead of FaceTime, since I’ve switched to Android and FaceTime isn’t available here.
Our smartphones have become overrun with walled gardens, such that choosing a phone now means being locked into an entire ecosystem of devices and services around it — and being blocked from anything that isn’t sanctioned. Companies like Apple have also started to find ways to extend their reach to other platforms in an effort to keep you in their ecosystems.
