Other Green bubbles... Come on now (if you are in the US).

[hirsthirst]

I've only read pages #1 and #9 of the thread, but I'm still none the wiser as to how or why this is a problem. Other than aesthetics (which can't be it, Shirley?) and the lack of read-receipts, I really don't get it.

• Across my wife's family we have a multi-generational UK chat group on WhatsApp, I don't know why it ended up there, perhaps before iPhone group messaging or because brother-in-law has a Pixel whilst the other seven users are iPhones. In the furore following Facebook buying WhatsApp I suggested moving to Signal, but no-one else cared a jot.
• My wife does all her texting using WhatsApp on iPhone - I'm the only person she messages regularly using iMessage.
• I don't much care for Facebook Messenger, but I have two friends who default to it, so I have to keep it on my iPhone or I'd not see their messages at all.
• My kid is 19 & not one of their UK peer group uses WhatsApp or even has it on their phones, go figure. They use Snap or - bizarrely to me - message each other via Instagram

Biggest problem I have with any of it is both trying to explain to my Dad (82) about the difference between WiFi and mobile data and SMS on the cellular network, and how that all drives blue vs green ... My father-in-law (70) also insists on turning-off mobile data when leaving his house so as to not exceed his data allowance, so we don't hear from them if they're out of the house!

Overall there are bigger things to worry about for me, but as ever YMMV.

 

[ignatius345]

Totally agree. There is no reason for messaging to not be like email - a fully open protocol.

This is a great comparison. Email is awesome because you can use any client you like on any platform you like and still email anyone on earth. It can be as basic as plain text, or it can carry images and even full on HTML webpage-like content.

It's really a good thing email was invented a long time ago. If they were doing it today it would be a nightmare.

 

[v0lume4]

The OP is so far disconnected from reality that I cannot tell if it's a troll post.

"Growing up" means not caring what phone people use, just like not caring what car people drive. The OP is suggesting we do the opposite.

 

[SilvioInfante]

Android is a solid OS

No.
It is not. And I will not budge, or indulge on this point. It is a toy copy imitation of iOS. It is a joke. I love the fact that the experience is worse from iPhone to Android, as a reminder of how bad Android is. Just get an iPhone. Problem solved. And no, I'm not joking or trolling. Android is garbage. It doesn't even provide motivating competition for Apple! That would at least have some value.

 

[ratspg]

I absolutely hate green bubbles.

If you are international and outside of the US, sure. I get it. Android is a solid OS. Some of the hardware is great. Android can definitely do some things the iPhone can't. And the majority of users outside of the US don't use Apple so the blue bubble argument doesn't matter.

But if you are in the US, come on now.

Tired of your friends ragging on you for green bubbles? Lack of getting dates because women prefer blue bubbles? Are you tired of getting low quality videos in group texts? Not being able to participate with certain functionalities with your friends?

Time to grow up and get an iPhone. The majority of Americans use iPhones, and I will not participate in certain group texts and such with friends and family if there is someone in it using Android because the experience is just too annoying, or I'll start a new group without the Android user.

Anyone else? Or do you disagree with me? I am open to feedback.

Tell them to get Beeper. They’ll have blue bubbles on android.

 

[yaboid01]

I don’t have an issue with the green bubbles. The issue I do have is when I send my green bubble friends a video or picture from iOS and how horrible the resolution looks on their end. Android needs to fix that.

 

[iJest]

I don’t have an issue with the green bubbles. The issue I do have is when I send my green bubble friends a video or picture from iOS and how horrible the resolution looks on their end. Android needs to fix that.

That would be fixed by Apple adopting RCS.

 

[yaboid01]

That would be fixed by Apple adopting RCS.

So are you saying the same scenario between 2 Android devices would be delivered in the same resolution the video or picture was originally taken in? iOS is solely at fault?

 

[iJest]

So are you saying the same scenario between 2 Android devices would be delivered in the same resolution the video or picture was originally taken in? iOS is solely at fault?

Both iOS and Android would need to have RCS. The adoption of RCS would go a lot more quickly across all platforms if Apple jumped on board. The file size limit of SMS, depending on the carrier, is anywhere from 1-3 megabytes. For RCS, it's 100 megabytes. So the chances of anything looking terrible and compressed would be greatly reduced.

 

[svenmany]

paraphrasing OP (just a bit) - "I"m so tired of seeing green. Time for everyone to grow up and get an iPhone."

Isn't this almost the definition of a troll post? There's no way anyone rational thinks like that. Unless of course they are offering to buy over 100 million Americans an iPhone.

 

[TSE]

paraphrasing OP (just a bit) - "I"m so tired of seeing green. Time for everyone to grow up and get an iPhone."

Isn't this almost the definition of a troll post? There's no way anyone rational thinks like that. Unless of course they are offering to buy over 100 million Americans an iPhone.

The point isn't that the bubbles are green. The point is the subpar experience that comes with it.

 

[LionTeeth]

I absolutely hate green bubbles.

If you are international and outside of the US, sure. I get it. Android is a solid OS. Some of the hardware is great. Android can definitely do some things the iPhone can't. And the majority of users outside of the US don't use Apple so the blue bubble argument doesn't matter.

But if you are in the US, come on now.

Tired of your friends ragging on you for green bubbles? Lack of getting dates because women prefer blue bubbles? Are you tired of getting low quality videos in group texts? Not being able to participate with certain functionalities with your friends?

Time to grow up and get an iPhone. The majority of Americans use iPhones, and I will not participate in certain group texts and such with friends and family if there is someone in it using Android because the experience is just too annoying, or I'll start a new group without the Android user.

Anyone else? Or do you disagree with me? I am open to feedback.

Controversial, and arrogant. And I fully agree. Green bubbles annoy me and make sigh and roll my eyes. Just get an iPhone already. Please grow up and move on from mid-2000s tech.

 

[LionTeeth]

I don't have your problem.

Neither does my son, a high school graduate of 2020 and third year IT student, nor his group of friends who use both iPhone and Android.

My daughter and her 10th grade high school group of friends who are iPhone/Android don't have your problem either.

IT = exempt from such discussions. They operate at a different level.

High school kid = lying to you, or not popular enough to have this be a problem. Because this is a real thing that exists in current culture

 

[TSE]

Controversial, and arrogant. And I fully agree. Green bubbles annoy me and make sigh and roll my eyes. Just get an iPhone already. Please grow up and move on from mid-2000s tech.

I've been debating make this thread for months, but it's been cool to see I'm not the only one. There's a sizable minority that agrees and feels the same way.

 

[Unami]

I absolutely hate green bubbles.

If you are international and outside of the US, sure. I get it. Android is a solid OS. Some of the hardware is great. Android can definitely do some things the iPhone can't. And the majority of users outside of the US don't use Apple so the blue bubble argument doesn't matter.

But if you are in the US, come on now.

Tired of your friends ragging on you for green bubbles? Lack of getting dates because women prefer blue bubbles? Are you tired of getting low quality videos in group texts? Not being able to participate with certain functionalities with your friends?

Time to grow up and get an iPhone. The majority of Americans use iPhones, and I will not participate in certain group texts and such with friends and family if there is someone in it using Android because the experience is just too annoying, or I'll start a new group without the Android user.

Anyone else? Or do you disagree with me? I am open to feedback.

I have an iPhone myself... but, why spend a fortune on a phone when you just can use a messenger that's not restricted to one platform? That doesn't seem too nice to me.

 

[Sital]

I understand that the premise of this thread is not about the bubble color per se, but the user experience. However, one color thing that has always bugged me is if the iMessage bubble is blue, shouldn't the Messages icon also be blue?

Carry on.

 

[Aggedor]

These forums are hilarious sometimes.

 

[KibJ]

These forums are hilarious sometimes.

They really are. Is this just a US thing?

I dislike the experience when messaging people on Android, but I think the blame lies with Apple, not Android.

Maybe Apple could integrate RCS but keep building on the iMessage experience; they can keep the green bubbles for all I care, maybe another indicator for SMS.

Most of my contacts are iPhone, with a few Android; if there's any sort of group chat going on it's never through iMessage, but through WhatsApp, which seems to be the UK norm.

 

[solq]

This is a hilarious thread. Do people still use text messages? All I get are things like 2nd factor authentication codes, automated delivery confirmations/missed call reminders from the mobile network, things like that. Maybe 2-3 text messages a year from an actual human. This is between my iPhone and my Flip, combined. And yes, I have unlimited SMS plans on both, but no need for it, we live in the internet age, why use this legacy patched-up mess that Apple put on top of SMS for vendor lock-in? I also have unlimited data and WhatsApp/Signal cover all my use cases…

Your life must be incredibly hollow if you care about the color of SMS messages.

Considering how immensely bad was the flaw in iMessage that enabled a zero-click exploit being used for over a year out there (read up on the Pegasus spyware), it’s best to put your iPhone in restricted mode and avoid iMessage like the plague.

 

[Aggedor]

Your life must be incredibly hollow if you care about the color of SMS messages.

Not only that, but the original post is one of those "my opinion is right", which seems to be a thing with the younger generation now. They are not actually interested in debate or discussion, even on an utterly trivial topic like this.

 

[Unami]

I live in Europe and I hate that people use WhatsApp here. I can’t stand Meta. Luckily closest people to me use Apple.

Same here. Apple is bad enough with keeping their standard proprietary, but WhatsApp is just bad. It´s ugly and clearly sells your communication metadata (your phonebook, with whom you‘re chatting and how long) to advertisers. Unfortunately, especially in Europe there‘s alway somebody who just forces you to use it. E.g. there‘s a group chat in one of my jobs that I have to take part in. And as soon, as you have an whatsapp-account, you (sometimes illegaly) upload your contacts to meta, and every tech-illiterate in the world thinks it`s o.k. to send you a whatsapp. It kind of feels like getting spit on, but you can‘t tell elderly people that, can you? (“elderly people“, because most people I know who still use facebook/whatsapp are over 60). Most of my friends and even school-parent-chatgroups have switched to signal. SMS/imessage is something you only use with people you don‘t know, to make sure, the message gets them, and to send uncompressed photos between iphones (as long as you don’t forget to to to “options->send full photo data“ every time - thanks apple) - but in the end that‘s like one SMS/iMessage a month or so.

 

[eyoungren]

IT = exempt from such discussions. They operate at a different level.

High school kid = lying to you, or not popular enough to have this be a problem. Because this is a real thing that exists in current culture

Both my children attended STEAM academies and were identified as gifted in the school system.

My son graduated from Maricopa Institute of Technology, a STEAM high school that has backup labs for the Mayo clinic (a sponsor).

My daughter is attending a high school outside of her district because it has a better arts and media program.

So, we'll go 'IT' then.

You don't know my kids.

 

[solq]

Same here. Apple is bad enough with keeping their standard proprietary, but WhatsApp is just bad. It´s ugly and clearly sells your communication metadata (your phonebook, with whom you‘re chatting and how long) to advertisers. Unfortunately, especially in Europe there‘s alway somebody who just forces you to use it. E.g. there‘s a group chat in one of my jobs that I have to take part in. And as soon, as you have an whatsapp-account, you (sometimes illegaly) upload your contacts to meta, and every tech-illiterate in the world thinks it`s o.k. to send you a whatsapp. It kind of feels like getting spit on, but you can‘t tell elderly people that, can you? (“elderly people“, because most people I know who still use facebook/whatsapp are over 60). Most of my friends and even school-parent-chatgroups have switched to signal. SMS/imessage is something you only use with people you don‘t know, to make sure, the message gets them, and to send uncompressed photos between iphones (as long as you don’t forget to to to “options->send full photo data“ every time - thanks apple) - but in the end that‘s like one SMS/iMessage a month or so.

WhatsApp isn’t bad. It’s a great app, remember that it was bought and not made by Facebook, and before it was bought, it rose to world-wide adoption (less so in the US but it’s highly used everywhere else) while having a fee.

Then Facebook bought it and made it “free“ by harvesting your contact details, which is unfortunate, and I agree, despicable.

But the app itself is still very good, extremely widely used, and multi-platform. It works internationally with no additional cost as long as you have data connection including WiFi (*). You get it on the iPhone and Android, it works just fine on low end phones, it’s got Mac and Windows companion apps, it’s very well featured.

I personally get a lot of work stuff on it, like contracts, invoices, photos and other documents etc. It’s got integrated audio and video calls. Some mobile networks in Europe and elsewhere do not count WhatsApp data in the internet traffic allowance (including calls), which is great for people who have to mind the cost of communications.

I’m all for Signal btw which I use with close family and some friends but it does have its annoyances (like partial computer message sync) and much, much lower adoption.

(*) Consider that as soon as I got my first iPhone (X) I sent an iMessage, blue bubble and all, while being on my home WiFi, to a family member in the UK who also has an iPhone, while being on her home WiFi, thinking it works like WhatsApp (i.e. free), just to discover later that I was charged for the international text message! Needless to say, I gave up on it faster than you can say “bubble”.

 

[svenmany]

The point isn't that the bubbles are green. The point is the subpar experience that comes with it.

But, you were joking when you said that the solution is that everyone in the US buy an iPhone, right? I genuinely thought your opening post was meant to start a humorous thread.

Many people can't afford to buy a new phone. Many just have to accept what is offered to them cheaply. I understand that you might be venting about the situation, but I hope you weren't serious about how to solve it. If you were serious, I'd encourage you to start considering other issues beyond your own inconvenience. Also, take a good look at the massive number of people in our country who are not as financially secure as you.

Time to grow up and get an iPhone.

I guess I can call my out of work brother and tell him to grow up and fork out a month's rent to make texting better for people with iPhones.

 

[pbonitati]

I absolutely hate green bubbles.

If you are international and outside of the US, sure. I get it. Android is a solid OS. Some of the hardware is great. Android can definitely do some things the iPhone can't. And the majority of users outside of the US don't use Apple so the blue bubble argument doesn't matter.

But if you are in the US, come on now.

Tired of your friends ragging on you for green bubbles? Lack of getting dates because women prefer blue bubbles? Are you tired of getting low quality videos in group texts? Not being able to participate with certain functionalities with your friends?

Time to grow up and get an iPhone. The majority of Americans use iPhones, and I will not participate in certain group texts and such with friends and family if there is someone in it using Android because the experience is just too annoying, or I'll start a new group without the Android user.

Anyone else? Or do you disagree with me? I am open to feedback.

I don't agree with any of it. Both companies need to play nice here. RCS is a standard now that I think all carriers support, its the natural progression of SMS outside of having one particular brand phone. Apple could still keep iMessage and also support RCS for SMS which fixes most of this. If Android were allowed to use iMessage they would immediately. This is one of the many things Apple does for retention, I understand this, but it's far from doing the right thing for the people. This stuff should just work in this day and age and the only reason it doesn't is greed. They honestly need to loosen up a bit. The **** they pull sometimes is straight baffling and dripping with greed, we all know what it is. Unfortunately, this practice will eventually catch up with them. It might take a long time, but it will.

I use an iPhone, but stuff like this really makes me hesitant with investing anymore more money in their products. I won't tolerate their BS much longer.

As for the rest, the social piece is just shameful. "Grow up and get an iPhone"? Come on man, really? In the realm of friendships, relationships and any other aspect of life is infinitely more important than what you are using for a phone and the color of your messages. This **** is an epidemic really! People going 10-12 hours a day SOT, obsessing over battery health, obsessing over colored messages, like wtf?

I hope you find your way my friend, because this isn't it.