“Americans do love the Apple ecosystem [and] few try to leave the fortress,” Joanna Stern reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Those who wish to leave iOS have to do some climbing — like buying new charging cables and transferring photos and other cloud-stored goodies. The biggest barrier, however, comes in the shape of a big green bubble. That is how Apple users know they’re chatting with someone on a non-Apple device. If outgoing messages are green, they’re not being sent via Apple’s iMessage platform; they’re just plain, old text messages.”
“That means no acknowledgments when a message is delivered or read — or that someone is typing a response. It also means limited video sharing and visual tools, and less, if any, compatibility with the more advanced iMessage apps, including Apple Pay,” Stern reports. “If you send a message in Apple’s Messages app from one Apple device to another, it appears on screen in a blue bubble, indicating it is being routed through Apple’s servers and encrypted end to end. This happens whether you’re logged in with your phone number or email address… If you’re sending a message from an iPhone to phones running other operating systems, it will go out in a green bubble, via your phone’s cellular network as an old-school text message (aka SMS or MMS).”
“iMessage exists because, well, text messaging sucks. One of the fathers of iMessage, Scott Forstall, Apple’s former senior vice president of iOS software, told me that the system was developed in the early days of iOS because Apple wanted ‘messaging to feel more like a conversation,'” Stern reports. “That is still what makes blue-bubble conversations so much better than green-bubble ones. Not only do you get more functionality inside the messaging window, you can pick up the conversation from one device to the next—iPhone to MacBook to Apple Watch.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t have a ton, thankfully, but we do have a few poor souls who text us with their ugly, dysfunctional green bubbles and it’s a awful experience. They can’t do much of anything. They can’t execute or experience any of the cool stuff we Messages users can. It’s just plain sad.
Our Message for them is always the same: “Get a real iPhone!”
Several of them have and they’ve thanked us profusely for the advice.
Sure there are a heap of messaging services on Android too (including many that can be set as your default messaging app), but I’m staggered at how reliant Android is on sms still!
I try not to judge a clien that I am arranging to meet for a cost estimate for my services, but I never seem to be able to shake the idea that this green bubble person may be frugal, so I may be in for price tag negotiations
clients
Yes!
Shun your friends and relatives who, because of their free-will choice, make you look at a green bubble!
Straighten them out, even if it means not conversing with them until they do!
Mac fanboi hubris to the Nth degree…
Well if you are discussing personal finances or weed or sharing other sensitive information, why expose yourself to un-trustable communication methods? Why should you let google or ATT/Verizon parse or record your conversation? It’s not about the color of the bubble and it is not hubris, it’s about privacy, security, and exclusive features.
“Hubris”?!? Who’s showing “hubris”, the people who prefer secure communications, or the guy who doesn’t even know security is the point, and instead goes to an Apple website and insults most of the people there by calling them all “fanboi”?
A great example of the hubris is right there in MDN’s take:
“poor souls who text us with their ugly, dysfunctional green bubbles and it’s a awful experience. They can’t do much of anything. They can’t execute or experience any of the cool stuff we Messages users can. It’s just plain sad.
Our Message for them is always the same: “Get a real iPhone!””
The green bubbles are “ugly”? How so?
The experience is “awful”? Really?
Well…
When conversing with someone like that, I must say that it’s remsrkable how Android manages to emit a vinegar and water aroma from the headset!
When dealing with a client, I know he seeing the blue bubble and he, subconsciously, knows he is dealing with someone who knows what he is doing.
If the client is using an Android, he doesn’t know.
It’s a win/not loose situation.
And sadly only Apple makes a messaging platform!
Oh no you say? WhatsApp for that?
My teenage kids have all switched to WhatsApp. The ability to group chat with ALL their friends with some Messages-like features is more important than the elegance of Messages.
Well said. There’s no reason Messages can’t do what Whtasapp does but more elegantly.
Except that WhatsApp does NOT have end-to-end encryption… As usual with Facebook services, you’re NOT their customer you’re their PRODUCT!!
Except that it does…
https://www.whatsapp.com/security/
This also applies to FaceTime vs Skype.
Mostly it was that Adobe was essentially giving it away on “Try It” licenses forever before they began to enforce licensing. People who never even used iPhoto would have it on their computers believing it was the best way to manage and edit their 54 vacation photos. And when you mention and demonstrate Aperture, price would come up, and that would be the end of that.
whoops, wrong article.