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What if Apple made SMS blue bubbles?

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
16,217
17,281
Would iMessage loyalty go away?

Read receipts optionally, not using data plan on WiFi, and seeing when people are typing is nice but ...

I wonder how much of the psychology of iMessage is blue bubble related

Perhaps im just feeling like philosoraptor rn on this fine Saturday but


And I have plenty of other reasons for not liking android enough to not sway me but I just wonder
 
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casperes1996 said:
The color of the bubble is a way of informing users about the communication technology used. Not having that information visible to the user would be bad, and would not inform the user of the implications of messaging on their phone/data bill. Not all countries have unlimited.
It also informs about what features of communication are available.
Click to expand...

Yes of course that’s factor

But I’m on grandfathered unlimited in us and even then I greatly
Prefer iMessage. But I don’t even sync w my
Mac just my iPad maybe that’s a little nudge the integration but I wonder how much is psychology of blue
 
This is an area where google completely screwed up on android. Be it on a nexus, S7 or HTC phone messaging sucked because they couldn’t figure out a standard, funtional app that just works across platforms. Hangouts was a disaster! iMessage is brilliant in its simplicity and I couldn’t have predicted how successful it would be at launch. Also, I have seen articles on the psychology of the blue bubble. I guess there’s something to it and creates brand loyalty especially with younger users. I love how it works easily across all apple platforms. Keeps you hooked on the ecosystem for sure.
 
I forgot about one of my favorite actually

Is quality photos videos and unlimited ish length vs 140 characters and compression hell

As niche as that may be that’s what seals it for me
 
thadoggfather said:
Yes of course that’s factor

But I’m on grandfathered unlimited in us and even then I greatly
Prefer iMessage. But I don’t even sync w my
Mac just my iPad maybe that’s a little nudge the integration but I wonder how much is psychology of blue
Click to expand...
Grandfathered unlimited in 2019 is not a good deal anymore. It once was before ATT got competitive and released better unlimited plans. If you’re on att’s original grandfathered UDP plan, all of their unlimited plans give you more features for an equal and sometimes cheaper price. It was time to switch 3 or 4 years ago. If that’s not the plan you’re on then excuse this comment.
 
bpeeps said:
Grandfathered unlimited in 2019 is not a good deal anymore. It once was before ATT got competitive and released better unlimited plans. If you’re on att’s original grandfathered UDP plan, all of their unlimited plans give you more features for an equal and sometimes cheaper price. It was time to switch 3 or 4 years ago. If that’s not the plan you’re on then excuse this comment.
Click to expand...

Not the original unlimited but a grandfathered relatively new plan good pricing and tethering included
 
Hmm, I'm on a Pixel 3a XL and I have blue bubbles (Textra SMS). I made it that way. :)

But no iMessage. What does that say?

2019-06-22 15.21.48.png
 
The primary reason I use iMessage is the end to end encryption using a hardware device-specific private key that is embedded in the Secure Enclave. They can make it any color they want as long as I can tell that it’s an iMessage and not sms
 
supergt said:
This is an area where google completely screwed up on android. Be it on a nexus, S7 or HTC phone messaging sucked because they couldn’t figure out a standard, funtional app that just works across platforms. Hangouts was a disaster! iMessage is brilliant in its simplicity and I couldn’t have predicted how successful it would be at launch. Also, I have seen articles on the psychology of the blue bubble. I guess there’s something to it and creates brand loyalty especially with younger users. I love how it works easily across all apple platforms. Keeps you hooked on the ecosystem for sure.
Click to expand...
In regards to “the youth”, I don’t think it has much to do with brand but rather knowing that the *features* used in their chats actually work.

It’s the difference between seeing a fun animation in your group of friends vs an eye roll at *message delivered with fireworks*.

Personally, I don’t like how stickers, gifs, the overuse of emojis, etc have made group chats with my friends more difficult (they tend to cause the topic to drift away and it turns into a gif messaging board, at which point good luck herding those cats back into decision making for a tee time), but I get why people that actually enjoy them would be turned off by seeing that one guy with his green bubble ruining the “fun” for everybody else.
 
thadoggfather said:
Yes of course that’s factor

But I’m on grandfathered unlimited in us and even then I greatly
Prefer iMessage. But I don’t even sync w my
Mac just my iPad maybe that’s a little nudge the integration but I wonder how much is psychology of blue
Click to expand...

You can configure iMessage so that you can have green SMS conversations with people on your Mac. I use that all the time.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208386
 
I still don't get iMessage loyalty. With the exception of video quality I have zero issues messaging friends and collegues not on iPhones. If the bubble color wasn't different I wouldn't even notice a difference in experience.
 
lordofthereef said:
I still don't get iMessage loyalty. With the exception of video quality I have zero issues messaging friends and collegues not on iPhones. If the bubble color wasn't different I wouldn't even notice a difference in experience.
Click to expand...

It's free (not everyone has SMS on their plan). It's encrypted. It lets you sent multimedia. You can use it on Macs and iPads.
 
lordofthereef said:
I still don't get iMessage loyalty. With the exception of video quality I have zero issues messaging friends and collegues not on iPhones. If the bubble color wasn't different I wouldn't even notice a difference in experience.
Click to expand...
If you have friends that don't live in the same country as you, iMessage makes it free to text them without using third party apps like messenger and whats app.
 
I don't care about the actual colors. I care about sending and receiving uncompressed pictures and videos to those who also have iPhones. And no I don't want to download a third party app and ask them to do the same.
 
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noobinator said:
I don't care about the actual colors. I care about sending and receiving uncompressed pictures and videos to those who also have iPhones. And no I don't want to download a third party app and ask them to do the same.
Click to expand...

Even with a third party app you won’t get full quality. iMessage is superior and I’ll have to use an iPhone because I can never go back to regular MMS again.
 
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This is a thread about " chat message colors to recipients outside of iOS". As such, I am unclear why people are giving me examples of iMessage to iMessage chat. I know what iMessage can do but that all falls apart when the receiving doesn't have an iPhone. You're left with either not sending them what you want or looking for a third party option.

When you see the green bubble there are basically one of three options.1. You are texting someone outside of iMessage. 2. The person you are texting has iMessage turned off. 3. There's limited data on one or both ends and the message was sent as sms.
bpeeps said:
If you have friends that don't live in the same country as you, iMessage makes it free to text them without using third party apps like messenger and whats app.
Click to expand...
That's a fair point. Unfortunately only one of my Hungarian relatives uses iOS. I have far superior experience with messenger by virtue of "everyone" has it and it's not limited to the device you are using (can literally send and receive messages on any platform that has access to a web browser).
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MisterSavage said:
It's free (not everyone has SMS on their plan). It's encrypted. It lets you sent multimedia. You can use it on Macs and iPads.
Click to expand...
Serious question, can't you send multimedia on other messengers? I was sending stuff like PDFs and short video clips back when gtalk was a thing.

Most messengers are free. I guess I'm talking about the US market here. I don't think I could find a plan that still charges for sms if I tried.

Encryption is a good point. But I have a hard time imagining the average user even knows what that is lol.

I do wish they'd expand its use to PC (or any other platform really) even if it has to go through an existing iOS device still. That's effectively how it works on Mac anyway. Your phone is the middleman (in the case of sms).
 
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MrAperture said:
Even with a third party app you won’t get full quality. iMessage is superior and I’ll have to use an iPhone because I can never go back to regular MMS again.
Click to expand...
My favorite way to share full quality photos is through google photos. It's how I share everything with my relatives because the majority of them don't have iOS.

It will create links to load and even does Live Photos. On iOS and Android it will also show the image in messages so you don't have to click the link if you don't want to. You could send the link as sms if you're so inclined. There's even an iMessage app. I hardly store photos or videos locally anymore.

(I didn't write this to change your mind. Just wanted to mention a way you can send full quality pics to anyone that show up virtually the same way they would going as an iMessage without being limited to iOS, for anyone that may be wondering).
 
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