Tim Cook: We have no religious issue with doing Android apps, but we won’t do Chat heads on iOS

tim-wants-the-d11-interview

Tim Cook noted during his interview at the D11 conference tonight that “Apple has no religious issue porting an iOS app to Android,” but was careful to point out that they would only do so “if it made sense.”

When asked about Facebook’s Android home screen replacement and whether such access would ever be available to developers on Apple’s platform, Cook noted that there are plans to allow deeper access to iOS, but such changes will only be allowed if they don’t impact the customer’s experience. Kara Swisher specifically asked about the possibility of Chat Heads becoming part of iOS, but Cook was quick to shoot the idea down:

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Walt: Facebook Home? Takes over Android. It hasn’t done very well. It’s an interesting idea. Your keyboard and your recognition, predictive typing has not kept pace with what has occurred on the Android/BB10 keyboards. Have you given thought to a little less control in OS.

Tim: You’ll see open up more APIs in the future, but not to the degree that we put the customer at risk of having a bad experience.

Kara: Will you allow [ChatHeads] from Facebook Home?

Tim: Customers like our current integration with Facebook services. I’m not sure that’s one, but there’s always more to do. We’ll come up with more things to do together.