Is having an Android really a deal-breaker for some people?
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...
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.
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
BYOD has been a huge shift in corporate IT over the last 10-15 years; mostly because if people bring their own gear, you don’t have to lease it.
How do you think Citrix is still in business?
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.
100%
I’m a software developer. MacOS is my choice for corporate dev (cause Linux isn’t an option) because it’s Unix based and has a working command line. Windows causes so many problems around dependency installs and frameworks.
Windows is still on my home machines, but they’re edging closer to going linux too.
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 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.
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..
US haven't moved away from Imperial either 😂
Americans please
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!
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 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.
If you live anywhere outside of the US, the question is irrelevant, because everyone uses whatsapp etc.
Within the US, if you are over the age of 30, it probably doesn't matter.
if you are under the age of 30 AND in the US, I mean, if someone does judge you for it, you at least have a great way to filter shitty people out of your life lol.
I'm over 30 (in the US) and have an iPhone, but before I got my current job I was almost never reachable by phone, either out of service range or phone was dead, so I give out my google number so that messages and calls go to my email and get forwarded to my phone. So I make green bubbles from my iPhone.
When people see me pull out my phone for the first time they get SO MAD. "WHY ARE YOUR BUBBLES GREEN?! YOU HAVE AN iPHONE!!" I don't understand. I know I could reverse things so that my cell number forwards to my google number instead of the other way around, but it's just not something I've ever gotten around to. Why you so mad bruh?
If you think you're better than me because you have an iPhone and I run an Android, I don't want to talk to you anyway.
People are so fucking petty and elitist over the dumbest fucking things.
Messages is better than text. Is requesting a switch to telegram not ok? I do that mostly so we can share pictures and videos that don’t look horrible.
I use Telegram for videos also. RCS on Android has been pretty great and image quality hasn't been an issue.
I don’t think you can use RCS unless both of you are on android though. So isn’t it reasonable to ask to use telegram or some other messaging all if you don’t both have the same platform?
Correct, RCS is only for Android. Right now it's limited to Google Messages app and Samsung's default texting app.
My wife has an iPhone and I run Android. Been that way for a decade or more now. Never an issue for her what colour my texts were.
And these days we use Telegram. Signal, FB Messenger, WhatsApp... There are dozens of chat apps out there that work cross-platform easily.
If your "friends" make so much fuss over text bubbles, probably the best course of action is to find better friends.
This.
Doubly so when the whole reason is Apple intentionally creating a degraded experience for everyone who's not paying them.
You can have a preference, even a strong one. You can also discuss it with people. But shutting people out because of their phone? That's a major personality red flag anyway.
Best answer
Let me guess, you are from the United States? Every time I heard about this is only from the US, never see anyone outside giving a single fuck about that.
Also, do you really wanna be friend with someone that choose friendship by the phone their friend uses? Wtf
Its only a dealbreaker if you are dealing with someone who is exceedingly vapid and worthless as a human being, and you should be grateful for it, because it lets you know real quick not to waste another ounce of effort on their dumb asses.
Are you 14? In that case maybe.
In my experience a lot of people act 14 all the way past their teens.
This is so American...
"Let me send an SMS, while I ride my horse to go to my bank and do other things that people used to do in 1870."
"Oh, their SMS color is different! I dislike people with a different color than me."
Americans are sometimes really superficial, unknowingly or taught since child. You can see something very similar in HK. The City is known for people being really superficial due to culture and the economic pressure on them. Marrying or dating purely rich money and status is pretty main stream
It’s more, "oh, that video clip looks like shit, and every time anyone on this chat likes something, everyone gets spammed a repetitive long-form explanation, and we can’t add Jimmy to the chat because it’s SMS now and AT&T limits it to 10 people, and …"
In the bad old days, SMS was incredibly limited. Apple came out with iMessage, which was both a full IP messaging client with rich features, but seamlessly fell back to SMS, and that was amazing, because a lot of the people you wanted to talk to only had SMS. Google briefly had a similar thing, but whoever ran that product lost the weekly pistols at dawn match that Google uses to set corporate strategy, and hangouts lost SMS integration, which meant you needed two message apps — one for IP messages that was good and a separate one for SMS that sucked. And they were completely separate — no shared threads or history or anything. And then hangouts was killed anyway to make room for chat, or meet, or duo, or allo, or jello, or J-Lo, or Oreos, or who the fuck knows anymore-oh. And so for several years, if you wanted the only thing anyone in the US ever wanted from a messaging app, you had to get an iPhone, because Google kept killing their apps every year like, "hey guys, our new app still can’t talk to your mom, but we integrated the "hot dog or not" feature from Silicon Valley into it, and isn’t that amazing?"
Now, it doesn’t matter, because no one is limited to SMS anymore. Everyone could be on whatever IP platform. But Google still picked a fucking standard built by the phone company with crappy baggage attached like requiring a phone number to use it, and anyway, they’re so late that everyone already picked iMessage. Even if RCS was as good, no one wants to change a bunch of stuff to be no better than when they started, and RCS also still isn’t as good.
I love the blue bubble thing being a .... thing.
It makes identifying people who are a waste of time really easy. Making a big deal out of the colour of a text message bubble? Smell ya later loser, you ain't worth investing any time in.
Move on lads. If someone's shallow enough to care about the brand of phone you use they can go sniff farts for all I care. I ain't following them in their campaign to give the worlds richest company more money. It reminds me of that fundraiser to make one of those reality TV dickheads a billionaire by donating them cash. Like how does transferring some of your small amount of wealth to their giant pool of wealth somehow boost your own... anything?? Probably the second stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Ok. I'll bite. What's the first?
I'm an Android user and I have no idea what any of this means.
When on Apple and texting another apple user the text bubbles are one color. When texting any other brand it shows up another color. So iPhone users can act like dicks because they are the in crowd when messaging eachother.
The thing is no one is using built-in messengers outside of US. So yeah, we don't know anything about bubbles.
They can interact with their messages in more ways than others. Direct message reactions (like, heart) and they can see the dot-dot-dot when another iPhoner was typing. I actually had a girl give me a hard time over this because she was iPhone and I'm android.
I have an android and can react to text messages and see when other ppl do. I also see the dots when someone else is typing, but that's only if they're also on Android. To me neither of those features makes or breaks a phone for me.
I'm comfortable on the android platform and I absolutely refuse to spend a thousand dollars on a phone. NO feature is worth that much to me.
I'm on Android, I can see both direct message reactions,
...when people are typing, and see when people have seen my message.This is all a part of the text message standard that every modern phone follows.
Apple are the only major company that don't follow the RCS standard.
It's normal to not know this since almost no one outside of the US uses phone messages instead of Whatsapp or telegram
It's bewildering to me how this continues to be an issue only in the US, the rest of the world figured out this problem around 2010, and I'm not kidding. It's like you guys are still arguing about Beta vs VHS in 2023
It's so exclusive to the US that I didn't even understand what OP was saying before reading the comment section for clues.
Blue bubbles, green bubbles? Wtf is that and how is it related to Android/iOS.
For reference, I live in South East Asia and use Android, but I have never heard my friends using iOS complain about some kinda bubble colour.
I like android better because it has way less limitations than apple. It also seems more flexible as far as apps and customization is concerned.
I like Android because I get more of a choice in phones than just the two or three on offer by Apple. I usually go with Samsung but I've had Motorola and LG before... just depends who's got the best device in my price range.
Apple is deliberately not supporting the global standard of RCS for exactly thai reason. They want green bubbles to stay.
If someone's gonna cut out a person out of their lives because of the choice of their phone, you're better off without that person in your life.
For a long while last year, I had an iPhone and my fiancé had a Pixel. It did not matter whatsoever in regards to the relationship. We used Telegram (still do).
If phone choice dictates someone's choice in partner it is probably safe to categorize them as "terminally online." Stay away from those people.
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.
I never had a IPhone but if they don't Text you because you don't use a IPhone... That sounds crazy.
Are you from the US? In Germany we use WhatsApp Threema or Telegram for messaging, nobody cares about some bubble colour.
It took me quite some time to understand what OP was talking about...
Wait, so people decide on a phone based of OS because of blue or green chat message colors? This is the first time I'm hearing this, is this something more of a USA thing or does this apply to other ocuntries as well?
Buying a phone based on chat bubble color seems something that occurs in a toxic society, where you are judged based on phone model. And why do they then change to an other platform to write you?
I never had a discussion about Andriod or IPhone based on this parameter, it was more about UI, services and design of the phone. To be fair we all use third party messengers like Signal or Threema.
It's a US thing. It took european carriers a very long time to offer unlimited texts (especially across borders) which in turn helped apps like Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram. iPhones display messages/SMS from non-iPhones in green bubbles. Pictures sent from non-iPhones are displayed in lower resolutions because Apple doesn't support some standard or smth.
The standard is RCS
The first time my wife saw a picture taken by my phone, on my phone, she was blown away. She thought all android cameras suck because that's what Apple wants them to believe. Her mind was blown that I actually had a way better phone camera than her.
It quickly became, "let me borrow your phone for this picture, then you can upload it for me." Yet she still refused to leave apple
And then you sent it to her over imessage, it comes through in 120*160 pixels and that's how she thinks Android phones take pictures?
Iphone intentionally lowers the resolution of non apple messages.
It's not the first time I'm hearing about it. In The Bachelor episode of Game Changer, wrong color of the bubble was used as main argument of why having an Android phone is considered red flag. I think most of the contestant marked having Android as a red flag. After that it was kinda hard for me to treat them seriously, like they are open enough to compete in a show to go on vacation with guy they are meeting for the first time, but they have a problem with that guy messages being displayed in different color.
To make it even more funny, when someone proposed they could use other communicators if they really don't like green bubbles, the response was that they don't live in Europe.
It's not about the color of the bubbles, it's about SMS vs. iMessage. SMS/MMS is outdated, slow, and limited; nobody should be using it anymore. iMessage is fast and feature-rich; arguably the best chat platform that exists, but it only works from one Apple device to another. Apple uses its position (50 percent of the U.S. smartphone market) to alienate anyone not using their hardware by rolling back to SMS when communicating with a non-iOS/MacOS device. This happens behind the scenes, all directly from the same Messages application. So from the iPhone user's perspective, they're either getting a fantastic experience (blue bubbles) or the absolute worst one (green bubbles) and it's all dependent on what the other person is using.
It's by design. Apple wants the default experience between an iPhone and an Android to be uncomfortable. And getting 125 million American iPhone users to use a different chat application is impossible since they have a truly premium experience with iMessage to iMessage communication.
Here's a great explanation of it.
I don't even hate Apple that much, but what I hate is that every time I find out somebody I know uses Apple product I say to myself in quiet "Oh gosh...", because very often the reason they use Apple whatever is to feel better than somebody.
And I hate people like these. Not every Apple enjoyer is like that, and there are legitimate reasons to go Apple, like wanting that ecosystem, good camera,, using something that just works or go with Apple Silicon revolution. And no, Apple is not really private.
But in most cases their reasons are either a fucking IM bubbles (because I don't want to spend 5 seconds to install an app that works anywhere) or it just "doesn't lag" (which any phone over $200 doesn't) which is obviously a fucking bullshit to cover the actual answer which is "I wanted to feel better by having shit that every fancy person uses".
But the funniest people are the ones trying to explain these "amazing features" to me, totally ignoring the points that IM sucks on Android because Apple pushes their own standard and refuses to use open ones, that no sideloading and Apple controlling whole app ecosystem is the best thing ever and that Android is slow, because it [put any argument Apple fanboy without the basic OS concepts understanding would make] and not because you used $100 phone and switched to a motherfucking $600 phone. Wow, who would've thought?
yeah but... apple dont make the best cameras, according to MKBHD's "blind camera test" voted by thousands of random regular people
Anyways. yes. i have heard a few people in my class scoff among each other talking about how they hate it when they see "green texts" in their phone, and such.
meanwhile i love the freedom from my android phone, with ad-free spotify and youtube. and i couldn't care less about the color of a text bubble.
I don't know what you mean by blue or green bubbles (I use Android, Chomp for SMS, Discord to IM, WhatsApp for the stragglers) but I've never met anybody so shallow that they'd give up a friendship over what brand of phone you use. That's the kinda thing a very childish 13 year old might do.
I think you might need to re-evaluate who you think your friends are, if they'd rather cut off contact with you than receive a slightly different looking text message. That's incredibly, INCREDIBLY weird.
so the whole world uses mostly whatsapp or some other messaging app. nobody not in the US gives a damn about the color of the bubble or even knows whats the device on the other side. we all use whatsapp its much better in any way possible (except that it belongs to facebook, that is bad... anyway we were there before it belonged to facebook, so.....)
My best friend has an iPhone. I'm a Samsung girl. Any time her phone doesn't let her do something I poke fun at the iPhone, but in reality they are just different versions of the same thing. The only real reason I have to complain is the price tag. I'm not paying double for an item that does the same thing as the cheaper version. That's just stupid financially. It's not a better product because it costs more. I can live without whatever it offers that android doesn't.
But t that's the thing, isn't it? iPhones don't offer anything that Android doesn't except maybe blue Text bubbles.
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.
It is odd that someone would choose a friendship because of a phone.
Honestly, it's kind of a nice filter to have an Android then, if that's the case.
If they do just move on. It's nice of them to display their red flags like that
This is 100% real for young people. It's sad and stupid. At least they can easily figure out who will be a crappy friend.
Green texts are the worst mostly because (I’m convinced) apple has programmed Messages to intentionally lose them to make group texts with android users a nightmare to deal with, in an attempt at social pressure on android users to get an iPhone.
They are wildly inconsistent in their delivery success. Often times texts will either never go through to some members of the group or go through at random times. Also sent videos are always horribly compressed. Obvious solution would be to use a third party messaging app but but convincing everyone to do that is usually a nonstarter.
What it is though is green texts are just sms messages, which is the original text message protocol that uses cellular infrastructure to deliver the message. Blue texts are sent via the Messages app over the internet so they are likely just more reliable and quick to deliver.
Why would anyone send video over SMS?
Why would anyone send SMS?
I had this experience in a family chat with some iPhones and some Androids. The funny thing is, it seems to be the iPhones that will miss pictures/message rather than the Androids. I'm not sure how that would pressure me (Android user) to switch.
Only the most superficial of people would use this reason as a method for diminishing or isolating someone.
I would question my relationship with them if this is their outlook.
Absolutely this. If someone doesn't want to be friends with me because my "bubbles are green" (lolwut?) I'll be happy that the trash takes itself out and I don't have to waste my valuable time on superficial garbage people.
In US it's stupid trench warfare of blue vs green message. As an Android user I have had to explain MULTIPLE TIMES that this is not about Android's lack of capabilities but rather the unwillingness of Apple to use RSC. Almost always my explanation falls on deaf ears.
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.
Laugh in Europe
Y'all are using WhatsApp, owned buy Facebook. Don't get too smug now. :P
Laughs in most countries
I have the opposite problem... I have family members and friends try to send me pictures and videos from their iPhone's over SMS ALL the time.
They are, like, 40 pixels wide and in the case of video they are literally unwatchable and unidentifiable.
They usually then act put out and irritated with me and the other android users when we need to ask for a link instead. IPhone users can sometimes be such complete idiots... I love these people, but Jesus Christ, guys...
I usually ask if they have an alternate messenger, like Telegram or even FB Messenger. Nearly everyone has something else y'all can start chatting on instead of SMS.
In the case of family message chains, it's impossible to convince them of this. They can't be bothered to find a solution that works for everyone. My immediate family is mostly iOS, so me and my partner just have to deal with this bullshit every time a message goes out.
I've explained the problem, but they don't want to install a second app.
Apple has openly admitted to this being a marketing tactic. They are creating tensions between family and friend in a bold and clear attempt to sell more product.
I can make my chat bubbles be whatever color I want. My brother-in-law sometimes gives me lighthearted shit for being the green bubble or whatever in the chat but like, hey man you're the one who put yourself in a walled garden, I don't see it on my end.
It’s not a dealbreaker for me but I try to push everyone I can to Signal anyway more secure and private than iMessage.
It's actually the opposite for me. I don't mind a fancy iphone, but that OS is so locked down I have to run the "same" apps on android to use them effectively for my work.
I can't stand iOS or any of Apples' faux premium nonsense. Everything is clunky and unintuitive to me and I just want something that works without having to jump through hoops all the time. Android isn't perfect but it's a lot more functional
Remember when work issued me with a macbook. Holy frustrating learning curve that is so unintuitive.
I still hate that thing lol
Haha. I took over my wife's old macbook because she got a new one and my laptop broke down. I lasted a good 30 minutes before getting rid of MacOS and replacing it with Linux. It's surprisingly similar but isn't bloated with Apple crap.
There are very weird limitations in IPhone apps. The only reason I'd buy an IPhone would be the photo quality. But I don't take photos so mhe.
The iPhone picture quality thing is something intentionally created by Apple. They make pictures sent from other os's look shitty on purpose.
The OS of people’s phone isn’t relevant at all in my social circles. I don’t even know who’s using what. The whole green bubble stigma is an extremely American thing. Everyone else moved away from the default messages app at least a decade ago. I only get some 2FAs there.
I know for sure that I bought Whatspp in 2010. It was a paid app back them.
I had to come to the comments to find out wtf the bubble thing was!
I still get a lot of SMSs from clients, but there's no way of telling what kind of phone they came from.
Also, where I am, Apple products have kind of an "old person's phone" stigma cos they're so simplified
Yeah, us Americans never really moved away from SMS. I think probably BlackBerry messenger, back in the day, was probably the closest we came to having a messenger replace standard mobile texting along with Facebook Messenger and Insta DMs are pretty popular but never as used as plain old texting. Lately, I've seen Meta running ads stateside for WhatsApp. It's weird because I've never seen them advertise anything before.
I never got Apple brand loyalty, even with how convenient their "ecosystem" is.
Not to mention their proprietary built in apps aren't that great. As a Windows user, doing anything to try and interact with any of the content on an iPhone (sync contacts, download photos, etc) was a huge pain in the ass. The amount of holes I had to jump through was so bad it must be intentional.
There's a clear bias to only give good support to people who have macOS, my main PC is on Windows, and I don't ever plan on buying a Mac. So it just means I will never own an iPhone again. They kind of dug themselves into a hole of this crappy walled garden and never thought to think it could also bite them in the ass.
It has been a cult since the 80s, going back to the Apple ][.
What are blue and green bubbles, wtf?
It means the rounded boxes used as backgrounds for messages on iOS devices. SMS messages have a green background, iMessages have a blue one.
And people care about that? That's the weirdest elitism I've ever heard
It's only a deal breaker for children and those who have the mental development of a child. It's basically two children on the playground arguing that their personal favorite colour is better just because.
It logically and practically does not matter at all what colour a fucking text bubble is.
For me, I'm technologically inclined and like to be helpful. As such, I would not date an iphone user as I do not know how to fix their phones, and that would make me feel sad that I couldn't help. Also, as an iphone user, it seems like they'd rather just buy a new stupidly phone than take the time to figure out how their device actually works, and that massively clashes with how I view things.
/s.
...right?
Poe's Law strikes again 😅
Just use a service that works on both android and iOS such as Signal.
iMessage is only a big deal in the US and maybe Canada. The rest of the world uses WhatsApp and Telegram mostly.
I use several different apps because my friends and family are a good mix of Android and iPhones. I use Blue Bubbles, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Facebook Messenger, Google Messages, Signal, and Meet for "FaceTime" calls.
This is more of a US centric problem, in other countries this hasn't been really a problem as everyone is using WhatsApp/Line/Telegram to communicate. More younger people are actually using discord to text with each other. I think this issue will get less relevant as time goes on.
I have a friend who said he was left out of a lot of group chat with his roommates because he was the green bubble. He switched to iPhone and they still were meeting up without him.
That’s when he realized it was him, not the color of his bubble…
This is mainly an issue in the United States and Canada.
Right. Android is still 70%+ of the world market.
Whenever I bring those up as an example of a platform (Apple) intentionally leading their users to blame other users for their failings as a brand-bolstering move, I get a swarm of people assuring me it's a myth.
I know it isn't. I see it in the wild, both irl and online, like in this thread.
It's so infuriating. I work with a group of people that, by coincidence, use iPhones. Our boss keeps sending out group messages over iMessage and I have to keep reminding him that this does not work for me. Every single time he is surprised and does not know what I'm talking about. It drives me nuts.
What's worse? I maintain, amongst other things, a zulip (matrix based communication) instance for them. Blows my mind.
Why would your boss be sending communications to actual phone numbers and not to something like Slack anyways? I know that's a very "tech company" question to ask, but you did state one of your responsibilities fits that bill, so I thought of asking.
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.
I think this is one of the most ridiculous, cringe-worthy things I have read in a long ass time.
I also have to say that I have no idea how anyone puts up with iphones. I have both and the iphone experience from a UI perspective is just awful. Yeah, the screen is nice, the battery life is good, the camera is excellent, but holy crap is this phone infuriating to use. You can get Android phones with just as nice hardware, but then you don't need to deal with that terrible iOS user interface. How is this such a popular device, I will never understand it.
Also, why the FUCK is the iphone so goddamn heavy?! It is smaller than my Samsung and noticeably heavier in my pocket. Just everything about this device is annoying.
To be fair, I've heard people say the same thing about android. That the interface is infuriating to use. I think once one gets accustomed to one, the other is foreign enough to be annoying.
The problem with iPhones is that they are not flexible. Android devices can be customized (though it's getting harder to do so effectively now) so they look, feel, and function differently. Meanwhile iPhones really feel like Apple has some incentive to make sure that you can only do exactly what they say you can do, which is not as much.
You can customize an Android device to more mimic an iPhone. You can't do the opposite. This one example highlights the massive differences between the phones.
My s23 ultra totally smokes iphones on camera quality, battery life, and screen. UI is of course subjective and people like what they're used to.
i only use android. if someone disciminate you ofr a stupid bubbles color. wth you do with that person???
It's not a strict deal breaker for me, I use an Android myself. But I will definitely preach to people the differences between Apple and Android, because in the US there is a vast divide and for some reason they think that it's a status symbol to have an Apple device, and they will boast like it's some great thing. It's super fun to pull up the hardware specs and show them that my phone Beats there new iPhone in almost every category. Then I end it with saying that both systems have ups and down, apples biggest Pro is going to be their interface, but if you are a techie or want actual control over the phone itself stick with Android. Most of the "incompatibilities" between the two systems, are Apple generated, meaning that they've gone out of the way in some way to actively forbid it. Bluetooth is a perfect example of this, Apple devices support it for audio transfer and Airdrop uses Bluetooth for its transfer medium, but you can't transfer files strictly over Bluetooth because the functionality has been intentionally removed to allow the walled garden state.
I've had people shit on me for not being able to "afford" an iPhone. I have an $1800 Galaxy Fold, thanks.
It's kinda funny because both sides have a skewed view of the other. I see apple users as less tech-savvy and generally more of the "general" population (see: normies).
The heck are blue bubbles? Is this post about some fancy soap?
For some reason the US hasn't moved onto platform agnostic chat apps like whatsapp in the same way the rest of the world has. As Iphones are the biggest brand out there and apple won't play nice between imessage and standard texting protocol, android messages coming though on imessage chats look out of place and annoy the septics using them who'd rather ignore their android using friends and family than just move to a new app.
Wtf. I use a Matrix brigde to iMessage. Simple working from android. That's the terrible truth. iPhone users live in a glossy cage, while android users can do what they want.
Is Apple doing it on purpose to socially pressure Android users to buy iPhones?
Almost definitely.
In my country, nobody uses imessage, just whatsapp.
Most of the people that I know who have Iphones do for family chat or teens and college age because everyone in their circle does.
But IPhone owners have no call to be looking down on android users.
Some of the greatest apps, PowerAmp and Photo Studio Pro do not have iPhone versions. Also IPhone runs behind Samsung in innovation. I mean IPhone finally added widgets but the functionality on IPhone pales in comparison to Android.
Also can't change defaults in IPhone for launcher, music, dialer, and pretty much everything except, browser, and email.
I could never own an IPhone because they think they know best for users. With Android I have autonomy over my device.
Some areas of this country do not get reliable cell signal that is where an FM tuner can still receive emergency alerts but no not IPhone because they disallow their customer base from having and essentially force their power users to utilize their cloud services because once again they fail to offer expandable storage as an option. Shaping their own market but it essentially is anti consumer.
Despite these things Apple is relatively successful with these business decisions (especially in the US) but Samsung Ultra has eclipsed the IPhone Pro with the 23 version and IOS is still playing catch up with Android.
Most of the world uses WhatsApp, and it does not matter if you have iPhone or Android. Are you in the USA? I hear it is the only country where people use apple messages so much that it matters.
Texting images between android and ios is fundamentally broken. Images are compressed to potato quality and did mot always make it. When i had android i sent images in messenger and texted in sms to ios folks. Its a lot easier now were all on ios.
So I absolutely understand its simpler to just 100% use a different app.
The image compression problem is on iphone's end, and they do it specifically to coerce you into buying an iphone.
Yep, send something in a group chat to android and iphone users, and if Android sends it, it looks good to Android users.
But iphone degrades it on receipt.
If iphone sends it, it sends a degraded copy to all the androids.
Apple tells everyone it's because iphone is better, and iphone users accept it.
But the end result is more people move to signal or other apps. Which is a positive.
Image size limit for MMS is 1MB, even android to android
To add on to this, there are two problems with sending images between platforms here:
It uses SMS/MMS, which inherently sucks. You simply cannot send high-quality photos and videos over MMS. It was designed for flip phones in the Dark Ages. This part is on the tech and there's nothing Apple can do about it, really.
iOS makes it especially bad. I've noticed that if someone tries to send multiple photos at once, iOS rolls them into a single MMS message, making the quality much much worse. Like postage-stamp-sized. Apple could just as well send each photo as its own MMS message and at least maintain the quality level that allows, but they do not. This part is strictly on Apple.
Any person who judges you for your phone is not a friend
Imagine being so materialistic that you reject friends based on what brand phone they use. I wouldn't piss on someone like that if they were on fire.
I strive for openness and choice. As much as android is less and less that, it's still a shit tonne moreso than iPhone.
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.
Which country are we talking about?
I barely know people using iOS, much less being elitist about it.
I've heard this bubble thing is only truly relevant in the US. Here in Brazil we mostly use whatsapp...unfortunately
Signal is my preferred messenger right now since I convinced my contacts to move to it. Collects the least and it is private.
There is also Session which is a Signal fork that removes phone number linking.
Matrix for a privacy focused federated messaging system is another option.
For stupid or vain people, maybe. And only in countries where people send SMS anyway.
I haven't used SMS actively ever, because as soon as smartphones got popular, everyone moved to Facebook, and then later I got my friends to move to Telegram if they wanted to keep talking to me.
Don't care about bubble colours, tbf I can probably change that with Android... user modification like this is one of the reasons I prefer it.
With iPhone, once you have one Apple device, your entire device ecosystem has to be a part of the same walled garden... or they don't play nice with each other. Also, imo while Apple devices are often good quality, they massively overcharge for it (considering the cost to assemble and produce the hardware).
Exactly, they fuss about blue or green text bubbles, well mine are yellow, deal with it 😎.
There's a podcast I listen to where the LA comedians routinely use Android as a punchline, while clearly having very little understanding of it. They talk about android users as if they're this bizarre group of social outcasts and libertarians. Tech isn't the topic of the podcast, it's just something I notice any time Android comes up during improv or something. Like this is a well they routinely fall back on. And a lot of guests seem to think something similar.
So I believe there is a weird stigma, but it exists in certain areas more than others. LA is iPhone country, lot of people there see Android as some subpar aberration.
I find it easier to convince Apple users to use another app like Signal to group chat with Android users instead if they really don't want the green bubble.
Alternatively, you can get a secondary iPhone just to use iMessage, but carrying 2 phones does get annoying.
Only for idiots.
I think this is mostly an issue in the US. The rest of the world uses a variety of messaging apps instead of text messaging. Here in South Africa WhatsApp and Telegram are prevalent.
This is mainly an issue in countries that still use SMS as main IM platform.
In most countries (where mobile internet coverage is good) the main IM and VoIP platform is an app like WhatsApp and similars.
(The only thing I hate from WhatsApp is that is from Meta and as any Meta app it abuses background usage. I'd replace it with another app but all my friends, colleagues, even shops use it)
It's a bummer that anyone is made feel this way about the phones they use. I've been an iOS user since my first smartphone and could not give less of a fuck if you are as well or if you use Android. Most of my friends are Android users and our message threads, video messaging, etc is all fine. I feel like I see this thread a lot on every platform and the comments section is just a place for people to vent about how much they hate the other operating system (and most of the time they have never even used the other lol).
Apparently for some people they see it as a gimped version of IOS somehow. If anything IOS from what I've used before is so much more locked down now than it used to be when I had a 3G. But yeah the stigma is there with some people, but it doesn't really matter at this point. If you want to side load apps, use android because you don't have to go out of your way to get dev permissions, hook it up to the PC to install, and constantly re-approve your side-loaded apps. Seriously that shit gets annoying real fast.
Deal-breaker in friendship? Hell no. If a friendship is defined by what phone you are using, the world is close to ending I think. Deal-breaker for me personally (as in: I need to use Android device): yes. I'm not making the switch to something Google.
Won't use Google.
But for some reason would use Apple.
Shaking my head
Everyone I know uses WhatsApp, and they're not childish enough for carrying about green or blue bubbles. So weird.
What are blue bubbles?
When you text with iMessage/iOS you will get blue text bubbles from people who use iMessage/iOS and green text bubbles from people who use Android/other. I don't have an iPhone so I may not be 100% correct.
Not for adults
It may sound weird, but your choice of phone does say something about you. I have to say I am dismayed when I see an iPhone in someone's hand. I may understand their reasons, but still. I can imagine it works the other way around too.
I mean, to take it to the extreme: I remember a Reddit debate about a married couple, where the husband was an open source, anti-corporate advocate, and the wife wanted to fill their house with Amazon Alexa speakers.
20 years ago, your choice of brand for TV or camera wouldn't matter much, but now it can indeed be a big deal.
I don't care much about iMessage. All the people I know who are not an iPhone users use facebook messenger and cry about how bad quality sending pictures and videos are. But do nothing to change that. Thats the problem. I was going though hell to convince my girlfriend to use Signal to chat with me. Because she is an Android user. I hate FB, Insta, WhatsApp and all that stuff.
Not to mention that any problems caused by green bubble lack of compatibility are Apple's fault, not Android's.
I came in here expecting to explain why I'll never have an iPhone lol
I had forgotten about the stupid thing where teenagers care about the color of your text bubble
I don't care what phone you have, but if you have an iPhone, I will assume you are an idiot by default until proven otherwise.
I mean..I just assume everyone is an idiot in general until proven otherwise, no need to discriminate.
This is some sort of childish tech-classist B.S. Like you wouldn't talk to a friend because of the shoes they wore or the car they drove. Who cares about people like that?
How old are you?
iPhone user here. Not a dealbreaker, but I can explain why some people may want to switch platforms. Blue bubble iMessages go out over the Internet--wifi, cell data, whatever. Green bubbles need cell signal and go over the cell network as an SMS, Blue bubbles can go out over cell network (via data), but they also can go out via wifi.
For me this means green bubbles cause a couple issues:
Now not a dealbreaker. I just move those conversations to Whatapp, Messenger, Line, KakaoTalk, whatever. It's not a big deal. And definitely not a dealbreaker. If it's a dealbreaker for someone that should be a red flag.
I can still be friends with someone even if they did choose the wrong phone ;) /s
I'm an android user that's been messaging and calling over the internet using the default messaging and calling apps for years. What you're describing isn't an android limitation, it's a vendor comparability and standards issue. And I've had just as many problems with iphone users breaking my group texts among android using groups. The fact is that sms on iPhone is broken by design, but because you're all broken in the same way you won't see it.
The above comment is a perfect example of the biggest issue: iPhone users don't understand what's happening and blame Android for it.
This is exactly why I'll never buy from Apple, the first problem in addition to the horrible contrast is intentionally caused by them so you will think other services are inferior. Either that or it's your cell provider, I've been able to text and call over Wi-Fi for years.
Google FI also works with networks from all over the world for no extra cost so that's really nice for international travel.
I've had an iPhone for a long time and I've never got a person sending me a SMS. All I get are automatic messages about deliveries and stuff. I guess iMessage is more a thing in the USA?
Most of the world uses Android. The fetish for Apple is a pretty uniquely American thing.
Not only that. There are plenty of iphones, but America is the one that uses SMS. Most countries use other apps, such as WhatsApp, Telegram and maybe stuff like Facebook Messenger (I mostly use WhatsApp and Telegram). I've never texted anyone using SMS except just to see if it works lol. But people in America primarily use SMS.
and my generation (from early 90s at least) mostly use discord or whatsapp. not even imessage and thing.
European here. Telegram and FB Messenger is used by everyone even for iPhone to iPhone communication.
European here too. I don't know anybody that uses FB Messenger or Telegram. All Signal and WhatsApp. But maybe my people are strange.
Same. European here, I have lived in several different EU countries and everyone I know uses either WhatsApp or Signal.
European and I hardly know people who still have a FB account, let alone use the messenger. Here everyone uses Whatsapp or Signal
People that use Apple messaging are clearly lost and don't know good software exists.
I honestly get it. Apple has been excruciatingly stubborn to adopt RCS.
But they won't. Because they want users to be pissed off enough to get an iPhone.
That being said, I don't think it's worth hating iOS over. Or vise versa, iOS users just being petty and not texting you because you have an Android. Kinda off topic but the internet loves to shit on Apple.....
Meanwhile I'm over here with a Galaxy S20, iPhone 11 Pro, MacBook Pro, and a mid range Dell laptop running Windows 10.
Also incredibly off topic, but IMO both Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro are superior to anything you can find on Windows. FL Studio comes close though. I hear Abelton Live is good too.
I'm just saying both platforms do the same things very well, and both platforms do some things better than eachother. Troubleshooting on Mac is a breeze whereas on Windows it's god awful. The UI on macOS is so much more consistent than Windows.
Windows has better platform support and doesn't depreciate APIs nearly as much as macOS. (Then again, DirectX 12 dropped support for Windows 7.....WHY).
The file explorer on Windows, while not as pretty, gives you much more control over the Finder in macOS. Windows gives you better user control over Disk Management too IMO. And of course, Windows is better for gaming. That might change over the next 5 years though which I am very happy about.
Also, the Control Panel is fucking awesome and I have no idea why Microsoft continues to try and depreciate it for the trashy Settings app. It has everything you need.
Bit of a rant there.
Clearly people with iPhones around me feel like they are a tad bit more superior. But everyone is just using WhatsApp, even between iPhone users, so it cancels out.
I worked at a phone store for 4 years and even though many people will say they dont care much for you having an android they will freak out the moment you say you have one. First thing they say is GREEN BUBBLES and then I have to deal with a rant on why they are iphone and what I use instead of so and so app.
I use Android with Snapdragon processors to be able to unlock bootloader and flash a custom ROM. This allows me to get Google goodies, even those which current Pixels and any other device, be it an Android or an iPhone, lack. For example: Unlimited original quality photo and video uploads to Google Photos. Regarding your bubble situation, as others have already chimed in, non-US peeps just don't care about it.
As an iPhone user, whenever I'm in a group chat with one or more Android users, sending images tends to time out and fail to send for whatever reason. Also video sometimes is very tiny. In those cases I'd rather use another app for a smoother experience for everyone.
Apple does this on purpose to try and get you to convince your friends to get a iPhone because " it's better "
Wait..when people say the blue bubbles they're talking about text? I thought it was the live wallpaper!
Can apple people not change the color of their text chat bubbles? I changed mine so long ago I don't even know what the default is.
Just in case you're not joking - the blue bubbles in the iOS Messages app denote that the text was sent via iMessage, vs SMS which show up in green.
iMessages typically send over WiFi rather than cellular (but can do both) and offer extended functionality like read receipts, Tapback replies (think like a thumbs up or laugh), integration with FaceTime, Freeform, and other iOS features.
You tend to notice when people aren't using iMessage around the holidays when mass texts to Android/iOS users include things like, "weariedfae laughed at lando55 laughed at joedonuts surprised at alansmithee's message."
The funniest part about this is that Android is immune to this issue. These texts automatically get turned into reaction emojis. We don't even see them. We just see reactions like we would normally.
Though I wish Apple would just use RCS instead of SMS, which is an open standard that has most of the features iMessage has. Then we wouldn't even have this problem.
It’s because of you have a green bubble, none of the iMessage features will work, so it’s better to use another, more feature rich platform to communicate.
I get that some teenagers or whatever make a big deal out of it but that’s all it is really. I have an iPhone and I use discord to talk to my friends who have Android phones. It’s never been a problem.
I wish those people understood the full history of Apple making every effort of creating this problem on purpose to create this effect. They've done everything in their power to stop any standard being introduced between the OSes and to introduce features that create this "iPhone vs others" clique bullshit.
Yet these kids and even adults act like it's an android problem. I hate how corporations always win like this, they know exactly how to manipulate people and it works.
What pisses me off the most about apple is their "hey look at this new feature" shtick, bitch please, we've had XYZ feature for years.
Lmao
I've never seen any blue or green bubbles. What messenger are you talking about? Will you really tell me there are actually people out there, using a basic built-in messenger ... for 90's SMS or MMS?
The problem is that in the Apple cosmos the messaging app doesn't use SMS or MMS, so people use it to communicate quite a lot. Once you use it to message someone on Android though it reverts back to SMS/MMS. Same is true for group chats. 5 apple users are fine, but if you add a sixth person that uses Android the whole chat group goes back to the 90s. Including super pixelated images etc.
It's a stupid system designed to keep people in the Apple sphere.
Yep, especially for young people in the United States.
People have become so attached to "one place only for everything" that something as simple as blue/green bubbles (and associated service differences) will be enough to isolate.
The messiah of maximal convenience makes differentiation harder and harder for everyone.
(And for everyone who says "Everyone here just uses Telegram/Whatsapp/QQ/Line, not a problem over here!", guess what, you're still probably gonna be exclusionary to other services just like the blue/green folks. It just doesn't happen to affect you.)
I just like how clean an iPhone feels to use. And the ecosystem. And AirDrop. I really dont care about the bubbles and dont know anyone who does
Is this sms protocol? Haven't sent any sms in yeeears
I switch to signal with my android friends, vanilla SMS is rough, particularly for group messages
No android is much better
I live in south korea, and YES. My friends say its a dealbreaker, although Idk the reasons.
I'm sure it is.
Just as driving a BMW is a deal-breaker for others. It's a good filter for avoiding people who are that shallow.
I'm not sure if it is possible for me to care less what type of phone somebody uses.
If I found out somebody was judging me based on my phone I would seriously consider breaking up with them.
I'm surprised and dismayed we are even having this conversation, and some of the other replies are deeply troubling.
I convert all my friends to switch to Signal. If they like blue, then let's go there. E2EE and easy to use
I don’t think I have ever given a shit about the bubble color, and I’m an iPhone user for well over a decade now. I don’t know anyone who actually uses messages for their main communication, they use other apps for that.
99% of people in Europe either use android or older models of iPhone, that's my experience in Italy at least, here a flagship iPhone costs more than a normal/good salary (about 1500 a month after egregious taxing) and the new iphones I unfortunately happen to see the pricetag of all come to about 1800, really can't blame people here for using android or iPhone 6/7.
Fuck em. We all think it's stupid as fuck when you "likes this post"
My first reaction what like ”yes, of course!”. Then I realized you are talking about others people’s phone, not about choosing your phone :D
The only good reason I can see is privacy since SMS not encrypted. But those people most likely ask to switching to Insta, WhatsApp or other BS platform, so I doubt it’s about privacy. The only logical reasons left - they are addicted to those platforms / they value platform more than you / they just PoS
For teens probably might be a dealbreaker.
For adults, mate webjust want to skip the small talk on slack or whatever app your corporate uses.
I could see some features they might want like texts not counting as an SMS or higher quality pics. Using an app fixes those issues so is whatever. Not texting at all is agreeable but don't expect me to reach out...
I’ve never seen such a thing in my life, but then again where I’m from even iPhone users barely use iMessage
If that's a dealbreaker for sb, i would have to think about if it's a dealbreaker for me that they think that way
I have seen so many instances of people who are happy with their Pixel or other Android device being forced to switch to an iPhone because the rest of their family uses iPhones, and it's specifically because of iMessage. It's really sad.
That's absurd.
Start. Using. Telegram.
Problem solved...
Or Signal. It works well.
In Spain absolutely everyone use whatsapp as the standard. Then, in families usually people use meesages, telegram or whatever.
The only time it’s an issue for me is when the other person isn’t willing to message me on another app instead of trying to use SMS. I get horrible cell service where I live and my only options are iMessage or an app like Signal /WhatsApp/Messenger.
So this is when adding someone with an Android to a group conversation that was taking place using iMessage can cause some irritation.
This makes me legitimately curious. If you're having this limitation on iPhone, would you consider switching to Android, as the standard MMS protocol supported by Android (and every non Apple vendor) works on wifi/data just fine? iPhone not integrating iMessage with the MMS standard is what causes the issue here.
The most notable explanation I can point to is that Apple's iMessage, below the hood, functions a lot like WhatsApp or Signal, being an IP Texting/instant messaging service, and offering various advanced features that regular SMS and MMS do not support. To some this is important, and they may think less of Android users as a result of this.
It als does not help that for one, Apple does not want to publish iMessage to the Google Play store, and for two, that there is no general advanced messaging standard in widespread use, that is being enforced as the mandatory standard unless absolutely not available at both ends by phone carriers and/or governments. If there was, the technical side of this would not be a problem.
Google tried to spread RCS as a standard but were shut out by Apple in the phone era. They bought a company called Grand Central station in the 00s and tried to do something similar pre smart phone era too but were shut out by carriers who wanted their mms fees.
Of course, everyone has crushed standards like xmpp and tricked people into thinking bloat like discord is how we should chat with each other.
I'm an Android user since the age of the beginning but know that even USA iPhone users that don't openly mock your bubble color, they by and large think that.
This is why we can't have nice things.