I asked if people chose iPhone for the blue bubbles elsewhere a couple days ago, and while there was some good discourse on that post, the blue bubbles definitely also came up as a reason.
In my experience, when people find out my texts are green, they oftentimes would rather switch to a different platform altogether like Instagram or just not text at all.
Is this actually a deal-breaker in friendships out there?
In some social circles, yes. Teenagers tend to cling into anything that could potentially be interpreted as a social status symbol or group identity - in the US, for some bizarre reason, people still use the default messaging app and SMS so iMessage and it’s “green vs blue bubble” design immediately fills this space. This can also show up in very shallow dating scenes, like someone using Tinder and just looking for a random hook up with a nice dinner beforehand - they could see the iPhone as a sign of wealth and available money to spend.
But for most adults, living normal lives… I don’t think so. At least, never have been an issue with any of my friends, family members, academic peers, coworkers…
Is it really that bizarre to use the default messaging app that uses the most widespread protocol(s)?
Yes? SMS is ancient, limited, and Apple’s added proprietary layer on top of it isn’t interoperable so “most widespread protocol” doesn’t even make sense.
There’s a reason Asia, Europe and South America aren’t using SMS in 2023.
And you know, it’s a smartphone, installing apps is kinda the whole point.
I think you are misunderstanding what the average person does with their phone. The vast majority of people have phones and the vast majority of them are not tech literate enough to go into the app store looking for how to message people. They just use defaults.
Yes they are, they are… Everyone in Europe. I don’t know a single person, including those in their 70s and 80s, without WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Yes, because that’s socially forced on us. I don’t want to have multiple different messaging apps (2 of which from the same fucking megacorp) to have to navigate around.
Person A like to message via app A, but person B likes to message via app B, and person C messages via both app A and B so it’s impossible to keep a fucking unbroken line of conversation going etc etc.
Not to mention that means that I HAVE to have these apps on my phone as a result. No matter how strict you set up your privacy controls to restrict their access, there’s inevitably shit that they still scrape from you, even stuff you’ve specifically rejected access to.
And then on top of all that, you’re giving them all of your conversaions with people. They may tell you it’s all encrypted and all that shit, but I don’t entirely believe it.
It drives me up the wall. Let me have one messaging app. Let it be the default app on the phone.
Well… If the entire world except one region manages to install a third party messaging app, I’d say I’m not misunderstanding anything and the average person is more than capable of doing so. WhatsApp is installed in over 92% of Brazilian smartphones - this includes grandmas, tech illiterate people, and all other examples you couldn think of.
Apple didn’t add anything on top of SMS. iMessage users data and has all the ‘cool’ features. If it cant reach someone via iMessage it falls back to plain old SMS.
Yes. It falls back to the protocol that doesn’t have any of the last 20 years worth of added features. How amazing.
Right, the rest of the world uses…. other proprietary messaging apps that have no interoperability between them. You can’t talk from signal to WhatsApp, or WhatsApp to telegram, or telegram to signal. You all need to be using the same messaging app.
The reason why the rest of the world never really got on with SMS in general is because most providers elsewhere in the world still charge for SMS messages while they’ve been free in the US for over a decade. When you have to pay for texts, you tend to look for an alternative real quick.
Maybe not bizarre, but I think the regional differences are just intereting. I am living in central europe and I honestly don’t know anyone who used SMS in the last 5-10 years. The only reason to use it is when your data ran out.
Yeah my last 52 texts are all from companies about my orders or my bills etc. No actual humans use SMS anymore
As someone who had visited Europe a ton , I know why you guys use Whatsapp. It’s because you all have so many weird phone numbers lol
I think it is, especially when the default doesn’t communicate well with a different ecosystem (Android vs iOS). So installing a app that gives you more features than plain text and works with all relevant mobile os worlds absolutely makes sense.