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?
If they don’t want to text you because you don’t have an iPhone they’re not friends you want to have.
Seen this sentiment that green bubbles = bad a few times online but never it’s never come up for me. I assume this is a teen - early adult specific issue where the idea is mostly to be part of the group
It’s been happening in high schools, to the point teens are bullied and pushed out of peer groups if they have Androids. It’s frankly disgusting that apple willingly creates this division to profit off teenagers bullying each other, and they don’t get called out for it enough.
But in the larger picture, it’s definitely going to be more common among the young, because iPhones themselves are ubiquitous among the younger. It’s something the tech space is slowly starting realize: Apple has almost total market dominance among the rising demographic, and this has led to increasing tech illiteracy due to the way Apple designs its software, and inability/refusal to learn anything else. That is a huge problem for the tech industry when the only thing they can do to find customers is dumb their software down to appeal to people that don’t know how to use anything other than iOS
Perhaps in the US but it’s not so pronounced elsewhere. I think I only know one person with an iPhone.
It’s still about 30% here in Germany. It is rising though. And I think this is because of “clever” marketing. The highschools here in Germany started forcing parents to buy Ipads for their children a couple of years ago. Children with low income parents get it from the city for free. Nominally it is, because it is “easier to maintain”, but I honestly really doubt this.
These schools are using iPads in place of computer labs. I’m old enough to have actually managed a computer lab, and I can tell you that a fleet of managed iPads is way easier to maintain than a computer lab.
Yeah easier to maintain lmao. You mean to spy on their students.
But you don’t understand! The USA is the entire world! Everybody else in the world is just like Americans or wants to be!🙄
I know five people with iPhones here. I interact with almost three orders of magnitude more people than five…
You interact with 5000 people?
About that, yes. Not in-depth and not each day, obviously, but I have quite a sizable crowd I deal with on a regular basis. Comes from having a lot of former students I keep in touch with.
You interact with 5000 people?? That’s crazy! What’s your secret?
Everyone 30 and under at my office prefers Macs, to the point of bringing in their own machines to do 90% of their work and falling back to the Windows laptops issued by IT for the remainder.
…I feel like bringing personal machines to work in order to do work is causing chaos with IT and network security
They could be accessing virtual workspaces using a company VPN client. Or perhaps logging into a Citrix Receiver Workspace. Could probably access a VDI environment as well. 2FA with a work cell etc
Lots of ways for personal devices to be used in the work setting. Would I recommend it or do it myself? Nah. But it can be done.
To be fair, as a work machine, I far prefer macs. And there’s a reason why Windows has been implementing steadily more and more MacOS features into their OS over time.
For a personal machine I’d rather Windows.
This is hilarious to me because I’m the exact opposite.
Windows for work (and gaming) MacOS or iPadOS for personal use for me.
If you think that the reason Apple makes the bubbles different colors is “to profit of teen bullying” then I think perhaps you might want to go back to reddit or Twitter.
What a ridiculous statement.
If anybody wants to judge me based on the brand of electronics I use, my favorite band or the brand of clothes I wear, I have no interest in interacting with them lol. This whole consumerist worship-culture is just toxic.
The worst thing you can do as a consumer is be (blindly) loyal to a brand.
E.g. I like Columbia jackets, footwear, outdoor wear, etc. If however their quality goes down, or there is another comparable product that happens to be on sale (and assuming I like the look/style) I wouldn’t NOT get it because it isn’t a Colombia product.
I am an Android user but this comment should be taken very lightly. As this is not the cause the truth is that Apple is at fault here for still using SMS as the default messaging protocol. However, with that being said, SMS breaks messages on iPhone and the devices have been geared towards iPhone users in away that makes it seem like Android is the issue with image quality and texting. The marketing is excellent on Apple’s end towards the competition and it is working.
However, that doesn’t mean iPhone isn’t the problem. I have a sibling who got bullied for having an iPhone. Apple’s answer to these problems is just, “get an iPhone.” This is equivalent to, “can’t figure it out? Just Google it.” The problem with this mentality is it gives more power to monopolizing platforms. Apple is a growing giant and if they had their way you would just have an iPhone and if Apple has expressed anything in the past 8 years it’s that they aren’t exactly the innovators with mobile devices anymore. To me the problem is on an iPhone nothing would change.
A little irrelevant rant but my point is that the average iPhone consumer has been given a marketing ploy so it is a deal breaker because they think it is an issue and in all fairness it is one but only Google is trying to fix. Issue is that Google should have tried to fix it years ago. You can’t blame iPhone users for wanting to use other platforms to message you if your message is compressed heavily by Apple’s shitty and stupid fucking decision to keep using SMS to control the market. The care about user experience is overshadowed by the desire to use that as a means to make money off of a user that doesn’t understand messaging protocols. Fuck Apple.
Keep using SMS? What are Apple’s other alternatives, exactly? RCS is still a mess, the only way it has e2ee is if you use Google’s messaging app, and there’s no way you will see Apple adopting Google’s standard without having a say in it, and rightfully so - Google locks tons of proprietary features out of their APIs - EXIF data for Photos, Categories in Gmail, etc.
I think this is actually more of a comment on Google’s lack of direction with messaging - how many different messaging apps have they sunset by now? Half dozen or so? Messaging has always been a cluster on Android. WhatsApp is supposedly e2ee, but they have backdoor bugs being patched on a nearly basis - ask Jeff Bezos how his dick pics got hacked.
Yes, but it’s a feature, not a bug.
It’s a super low investment and quick way to identify people you should avoid.
I think this must be a cultural thing because no one in the UK sends SMS messages. Everyone just uses WhatsApp or signal or telegram. I’m android and have literally never had anyone mention the colour of my bubble. I didn’t know this was a thing!
I think it’s mostly an US thing. The rest of the world has moved away from SMS.
It’s mostly a US thing because Android is the standard pretty much everywhere except the US.
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that’s because other countries have affordable data & available wifi…
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Lol not true
this is definitely not true.
Android makes up over 70% of the global phone market, what’s not true?
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US haven’t moved away from Imperial either 😂
Americans please
I use SMS in Denmark with people I don’t know personally. Apps like Telegram or WhatsApp aren’t common here (yet) unfortunately.
Everyone has Facebook and uses Messenger. The absolute worst of all the choices…
I would never install any of the Meta shit apps no matter what. I quit FB in 2017 and never looked back
SMS is also basically free in several places, so there’s that.
Yeah, this is definitely a US-centric thing. Almost nobody I know (UK) uses SMS as their default, it’s usually the last resort before just ringing the person.
I think the only SMS messages I get are from the Doctor.
Mine are just for 2FA.
I’m from the US and people are using SMS less and less I feel like (though again, I’m biased because Android). Even most of my networking for work is done on Instagram, which to me is incredibly bizarre.
Canada too, but at least we don’t rely on whatsapp/meta
Wait, this is over SMS!?!? How quaint! I haven’t seen anybody use an SMS for anything outside of spam in years!
How old are you? When I studied in Scotland 2016-2020, the preferred messaging app was messenger (i.e. facebook), and I’m curious whether that has changed in the last 3 years or whether it’s a different demographic.
I don’t understand the apple cult. I’ve tried their phones. I prefer Android phones.
I have heard of some people who think non apple users are subpar, but those are the ones you want to avoid.
I worked for Apple for about 4 years and few people had Apple devices, despite the discount. I was supplied an iMac and MacBook Pro, but also a Windows PC and notebook that most work was done on because of software support. Most employees were obviously into their tech, so Android was by far the most popular for mobile devices. I remember a guy with a Windows phone.
No one judged, though. Having obviously used a lot of gadgets extensively, people understood that people land on what they like the most and there’s no right or wrong with personal opinion.
This is the key. Different products are intuitive for different people. Some people prefer less customizability with less barrier to entry. I recommend Apple products for a lot of users even though I strongly prefer Android/Linux/Widows. I also strongly prefer the Mac trackpad and gesture support. I use a Mac laptop for anything not work related because I hate the way trackpads work on Windows (even using the superior Mac trackpad).
All that said, if someone else prefers iOS, or Windows trackpads (or even likes those awful little buttons on Lenovos), then they should use them! Use what works for you!
This works both ways. Best advice is to stop caring.
I’ve had (have) iPhones supplied by work and I just can’t get away with them. To the point it just sits there on my desk and never get touched unless I need to 2FA or something through it.
And even that takes me an unreasonable amount of time to figure out every time. A lot of that is down to lack of experience, but I’m sure most is down to it just being unintuitive vs an android. And I’m a Pixel user, and before that a HTC user so always been a very pure Android experience.
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…
in the US, for some bizarre reason
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.
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.
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.
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.
I never had a IPhone but if they don’t Text you because you don’t use a IPhone… That sounds crazy.
iPhone user here, no. I don’t care what other people use and I really find the Android vs iPhone debate both done-to-death and incredibly boring. Most often, from both sides, it’s just people (kids most likely) stroking their own egos in an attempt to argue with someone and feel superior.
I use an android tablet currently for art. I’m very familiar with android and even some degree of programming knowledge. It’s great. My iPhone is just as good in that it does what I need it to do and I understand other people don’t feel the same, which is absolutely fine.
Fuck blue bubbles lmao that’s some cult shit tbh.
Oh also, Memmy is amazing.
In my experience, no, especially outside of the US.
In many places/countries, there are more android than iphone users. This is especially true in developing countries, but also some developed ones too. It’s not uncommon for everyone in these areas to use alternative messaging platform like whatsapp, telegram, or line, so there was barely any difference between android and iphone.
So it’s barely a deal-breaker, at least, in this scenario.
It’s not a dealbreaker for me but I try to push everyone I can to Signal anyway more secure and private than iMessage.
Only for idiots.
Maybe it’s a US vs Europe thing but as a European, most messaging (for better or worse, probably worse since it’s Meta) is done via whatsapp, where messages appear the same for iPhone and Android users, if somebody messages me through SMS I’d probably think it was a scam or they’re really old, no-one I know uses SMS anymore.
It is in fact, a US vs Europe thing. Stateside “SMS” is ubiquitous. I put quotes because it’s not really SMS anymore. It’s either RCS between Android users or iMessage between iPhone users. The only time SMS actually gets used is between Androids and iPhones, because as other commenters in this thread mention. Apple refuses to implement RCS on their devices in a way that is compatible with non-Apple devices.
Apple refuses to implement RCS on their devices in a way that is compatible with non-Apple devices.
I think it’s important to note that “RCS” in this context actually refers to a proprietary messaging platform by Google, running on Google’s servers. There is no industry-standard RCS in use in America; it’s just Google’s forked version, which in practice is exactly as proprietary as iMessage. Nobody should expect Apple to implement someone else’s proprietary messaging platform on their devices, especially one run by Google, which has the worst history of managing messaging platforms of any company on the planet.
Whatsup is just Facebook messenger. No one is installing it, you been fool to believe everyone uses it but not really.
Well I certainly wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t for social pressure, it’s the main way most of the people I know communicate. I don’t have a facebook account or need one to use it, so I wouldn’t call it facebook.
This is mainly an issue in the United States and Canada.
But iOS is 87% and rising for US teenagers, which explains iMessage being the dominant messaging platform in the US.
People that buy Apple are some of the most superficial beings on this planet.
Who gives a fuck about text bubbles?
Find friends that aren’t so shallow.
I don’t think it’s literally about the color. It’s that SMS has no features. I don’t like talking to people over SMS either. I like modern chat platforms, like Signal and Telegram, that support reactions, high-quality media, receipts, encryption, etc.
Android is switching over to RCS where available, as long as you use the Google Messages app. The default app on a lot of phones don’t support it, but all major carriers in the US do support it. RCS is far superior to MMS or SMS. RCS also supports reactions, receipts, etc, though I’m unsure about whether or not it supports high quality media, but I do know that I’ve had no issues getting good pictures texted to me from other Android users who have RCS. If apple would follow suit, this would be a non issue, but Apple refuses to play ball, so they can use it as a marketing tactic. I’d bet that if they opened up iMessage to Android, there would be a whole lot of people adopting it, just so we’re all on the same page, but yet again, Apple refuses to play nice. This entire thing is Apple’s fault for wanting to keep iPhone users in a walled garden.
I wouldn’t say Android is switching, I’d say Google is switching. There’s no support in Android itself. Third-party SMS apps cannot hook into RCS. There’s limited carrier support. Google is running the RCS relay, and it’s only at the app level, not the OS level. This might seem like an academic distinction to some people, but certainly not to the billion or so users in China, anyone who likes third-party apps, or anyone who prefers deGoogled Android OSes.
Most carriers still don’t support RCS themselves, Apple would need to build their own relay like Google did.
RCS itself is not necessarily E2E encrypted, though Google has hacked that on top if you use their app. This is not an improvement over other closed systems like iMessage. It’s just another closed system.
And because it’s Google, the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Doesn’t work on Google Fi or Google Voice, last I checked.
You couldn’t pay me to adopt another Google messaging platform after they’ve jerked me around endlessly with g-chat/Hangouts/Duo/Voice. I’ll use RCS when it’s truly open and standard. As long as Google is the gatekeeper, I’m out.
The whole system is a mess, largely thanks to Google’s mismanagement.
I just know that those 12 people who down voted this are also some of those superficial beings. Like really? Grow up, the products you use shouldn’t have any effect on your ability to be friends with someone. I find it extremely hard to believe that their are full grown adult human beings that believe this is.
One of my acquaintances started a fairly large group text thread recently. Somewhere along the way someone said, “Who’s the android user in here ruining everything?” I never said anything in the thread, so I felt like I was in the corner of a crowded room wearing a disguise about to be exposed.
I was also pretty annoyed. Like, what’s it matter? Texts are for text. Text works fine.
Get out of that group and if asked why say you don’t like bigots.
Lmao
The only valid response to this shit.
