Puke green bubbles from settlers who can’t or won’t manage to get themselves a real iPhone for all the fake, pretend Android knockoffs will continue ruining our Messages for the foreseeable future.
Ask any Android user to name an Apple app that they’d like to have on their Galaxy or Pixel phone and the answer will almost universally be the same: iMessage. And the likely reason behind that answer? Green bubbles.
While Android users have no idea whether the person they’re texting with has an iPhone, Android, or a Windows Phone, Apple makes it very clear what device you and your friends are using. Messages from iPhone users are wrapped in serene blue bubbles while everyone else’s bubbles are colored in a garish green hue… If Apple were to release an iMessage Android client in the Play Store, it would quickly become one of the most downloaded messaging apps, challenging Google’s own Messages, WhatsApp and Signal, at least at launch.
It’s a nice dream, but it’s never going to happen…
As iMessage has grown in popularity, the green bubbles have become more and more of a nuisance, so when an Android user joins a group conversation, it spoils the party for everyone, turning the whole group green and sullying the iMessage experience.
https://twitter.com/BenBajarin/status/1162048579654963200
According to The New York Post, it’s gotten so bad that some iPhone users won’t even consider dating someone that doesn’t text on blue bubbles… People do care about their status. That’s not an accident. Apple differentiates iMessages from SMS messages with such starkly different colors for a reason: to show which of your friends have the good taste to buy an Apple device.
MacDailyNews Take: Messages for Android was, as one point strongly considered and a little birdie tells us that it still exists, updated, in the vault is case Apple ever decides it makes sense economically and/or strategically to release it.
For the time being, those who settle for Google insecure, privacy-trampling, fragmented, toxic hellstew will remain in their green bubble ghetto sporadically soiling our pristine, blue, full-featured Messages.
The main thing I dislike about SMS messages is I can’t use Messages on my computers to respond to Android users. I hate typing on a phone, and use Siri to dictate, but that’s not always feasible or a good idea (like in an airport). So, when I’m in a group conversation and even just one person is using an android, it spoils it for everyone and locks you into responding via the phone.
I agree that the green bubbles and limited functionality is annoying — but you most certainly can reply via SMS with Messages on a Mac. It’s an extra setting you have to turn on but it works pretty much flawlessly and I do it every day.
Sometimes it works (with Android telephones) and sometimes it doesn’t. Even with the same person. On the same day. Weirdly inconsistent.
You can reply to SMS messages on your Mac if you have an iPhone. On your iPhone, go to Settings>iMessage>Text Message Forwarding and turn it on for your Mac. It only works with devices tied to the same iCloud account.
Yep, I’ve done all that. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. No rhyme or reason.
Apple will lose this war. Everyone I know is going to WhatsApp for this very reason. You have ALL the advantages of iMessage plus you can even BOLD your text! And WhatsApp is platform agnostic. iMessages will become irrelevant soon enough.
Oh, and did I mention that in WhatsApp you can actually copy PART of a message (on my iPhone I have to copy the entire message and then delete the parts I don’t want- why they removed the ability to copy part of a message is beyond me!). The decline and fall of the Apple empire is nigh!
WhatsApp is a highly insecure platform owned by Facebook.
I don’t require any further reason to prefer iMessage.
Pretty funny and ridiculous. I am referring to social isolation of people on Android by iPhone users (high schoolers +) because they don’t have imessage capability. The modern day equivalent of bullying. Since these people have lost the ability to communicate using their voices.
A patently ridiculous assertion by the article and, of course, MDN itself. How, exactly, does getting a text from my Samsung-owning daughter “ruin” the conversation?
And would anyone really be interested in dating someone who would shun you because of the brand of phone you own? If we needed a new definition of “shallow”, I think we’ve found it.
The better way of stating it would be to say that the messaging features are degraded when an Android user is added to an iMessage conversation. As an example, if you have 5 iPhone users and one Android user in a group text, all the users lose the ability the leave the conversation. I believe this is because in order to leave, you need someway of notifying all users that you no longer want to receive messages, and I don’t think the vanilla SMS protocol supports sending or receiving such a notification. Since the feature won’t work reliably for one user in that scenario, it is disabled for all users.
I agree 100% that people who base dating decisions on choice of smartphone are ridiculous.
The shortcomings are Apple’s and Apple’s alone.
Well, the most direct way to address the shortcoming would be to release iMessage for Android, which was the main point of MDN’s take. That’s strictly a business decision, and it obviously makes a lot of business sense for Apple to refrain from releasing such an app.
Then you must admit that it’s all about what’s best for Apple.
Those would be the spotty ones who can’t find anyone
Just another parasite Android user crying about their choice, Apple’s solution was invented because back in day Apple wasn’t supported by the other Message programs.
SMS is supported by every texting device, MMS by the majority. Apple Message making the distinction of ‘other’ users is simply playing unconsciously into the divisive environment we find ourselves in today. Many other messaging Apps are platform agnostic with practically identical support on each. if you don’t like WhatsApp, there is Line for example.
No one with more than half a brain cares about the colors. If you’re focusing on the colors and not the content of the messages then you’re totally fcuked up.
Most folks don’t have half a brain, you see.
Seems to me Apple could have their cake and eat it too, by simply change the bubble color on Android with iMessage (if they release it) to a different shade of blue or green or another color. Still leaving a difference between iPhone and Android users, but while providing the iMessage features, or even a subset of them.
Not sure how changing the color from green to something else would make a difference. And Apple DOES offer a subset of iMessage features, just not all of them (like being able to add or remove people from a group text, for starters).
And then there is that one friend who for whatever reason refuses to turn on iMessage (even though you’ve told them repeatedly that it’s more secure) and just uses SMS and you get ghastly green text bubbles from them. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?
I agree. Sad but true.
Maybe that friend has a lot more people he texts that can only use SMS since iMessage handles SMS rather finicky for non-iPhones.
Does someone know why some texts split into multiple texts between blue and green phones?
Not quite sure. I’ve encountered that and thought it might be an SMS limitation of text characters.