{"id":34667,"date":"2022-01-11T16:22:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T21:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=34667"},"modified":"2022-01-25T16:41:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T21:41:59","slug":"blue-bubble-envy-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/11\/blue-bubble-envy-is-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Bubble Envy Is Real"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Vincent<\/a> (via Nilay Patel<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Google has accused Apple of benefiting from bullying as part of a deliberate strategy to make Android users into second-class citizens on the iPhone-maker’s iMessage service.<\/p>

Apple’s messaging service includes a number of iOS-exclusive features, like Memoji, and famously turns texts from Android users green instead of the iOS-native blue. This has turned iMessage into a status symbol among US teens, creating peer pressure for young people to buy iPhones and sometimes leading to the ostracization of Android users. Showing up in a group chat as a green bubble has become, for some, a social faux pas.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Google’s intervention here is not purely altruistic, of course: the company would benefit hugely from Apple making iMessage available on Android. Google has also recently been pushing<\/a> for the iPhone-maker to support next-generation texting standard RCS<\/a>, which is intended to replace SMS and has already gathered support<\/a> from major US carriers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Is it 2019 again? That was the last time we had a spate of stories examining the plight of Android users texting friends with iPhones. There was the Fast Company<\/em><\/a> exposé of teenagers’ “distaste” for green bubbles<\/a>, that thorough investigation by the New York Post<\/em><\/a> into the problem — featuring interviews with exactly one iPhone user who refused to date Android users, and one Android user who felt slighted — and there was Samsung’s ridiculous comeback attempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I have written before about how iMessage is a platform differentiator<\/a> for Apple, but I do not think it is as bulletproof as either its biggest fans or extreme antitrust detractors believe. More to the point, I do not know anybody who uses just one messaging service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

The story keeps coming back because, social pressures aside, iMessage conversations with mixes of green and blue bubbles continue to not work as well as you’d think they could. Then again, the Messages experience with pure blue bubbles is pretty<\/a> bad<\/a>, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Bridger Maxwell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I just want Apple to stop splitting group chats with Android users into a new thread every time someone replies<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Francisco Tolmasky<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve been out of the loop on this whole iMessage vs. Google thing… but I am fascinated by the fact that anyone is defending is iMessage. I just can’t believe anyone would ever say a single positive thing about iMessage if they’ve ever had to scroll up in that app.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n