3 ms·

Quite often, actually. Well, in the US at least. "Green bubble" ickyness is a real thing among the US youth. School children get bullied until they ask their p

Quite often, actually. Well, in the US at least. "Green bubble" ickyness is a real thing among the US youth. School children get bullied until they ask their parents for an iPhone for that blue bubble. Dates will ghost you if you text them with a green bubble. Friend groups will just refuse to invite you solely because you have the dreaded green bubble. There's serious social pressure in the US to switch to iOS just for imessage.

Jtsummers 5y ago
I'd like to see real numbers on the frequency of this kind of behavior. I don't doubt that it happens, but it's very implausible that it's widespread behavior.
- stu2b50 5y ago
  There's no way to have accurate, completely relevant numbers - not even Apple can track that. But, with my anecdotal experience graduating from HS in the US having just caught the iPhone craze, here are some numbers that support that. It's well known that Apple has about a 50% marketshare overall in the US. But what about among the youth? If my hypothesis is correct, then the green bubble bullying should mean that more teenagers own iPhones than the general population. And indeed they do! Youth ownershop of iPhones in the US is a whopping 86%[0] - with 89% reporting that they are planning on buying a iPhone as their next phone. This also gives iMessage the marketshare in this specific niche to be the dominant messaging app. [0]https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/06/us-teen-iphone-ownership-reaches-all-time-high-continues-to-grow https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/06/us-teen-iphone-ow...
  - Jtsummers 5y ago
    > It's well known that Apple has about a 50% marketshare overall in the US. But what about among the youth? If my hypothesis is correct, then the green bubble bullying should mean that more teenagers own iPhones than the general population. > And indeed they do! Your reasoning is flawless...
  - tomjen3 5y ago
    That is interesting, and in my mind, insane. Here in Europe it seem to be about 50% as well, but we use either Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp, exactly because what is the point of using iMessage if you only have at most half your friends on it?
    - stu2b50 5y ago
      Because way more than 50% of your friends have it in the US; if you're a teenager, 80%+ of your friends have an iPhone. It's the default messaging app, and it works well, and it's become somewhat of a status symbol.
    - sfifs 5y ago
      It isn't. The only major countries in the world iPhone approaches 50% are US, UK, JP and the Gulf oil states.
LegitShady 5y ago
I. Don't know any person who actually thinks this way. If friends won't invite you or dates will ghost you based on messaging app you've dodged a bullet with not associating with those people.
Larrikin 5y ago
This was kind of a thing back when there was some what of a differentiation between the platforms when it came to features many many years ago and the concept of a premium Android was not really a thing, but in my friend groups that span between the ages of early twenties to late thirties, everyone has atleast a few messaging apps and really the only people that insist on group chats over imessage are my family group chats with people over the age of fifty. As a lifelong Android user it's never been an actual impediment to communication, especially with people I actually consider friends, but also with just random meets from apps like Tinder or meetup where you usually start with a phone number but then move to some other platform the first time you want to share any kind of multimedia. iMessage offers nothing that LINE, messenger, WhatsApp, snapchat etc don't already have besides being preinstalled if you own an iphone as far as I can tell.
usrusr 5y ago
If Apple makes important strategic decisions on observations like that they are on a path to failure in international markets due to lack of cultural understanding.

Jtsummers 5y ago

I'd like to see real numbers on the frequency of this kind of behavior. I don't doubt that it happens, but it's very implausible that it's widespread behavior.

stu2b50 5y ago
There's no way to have accurate, completely relevant numbers - not even Apple can track that. But, with my anecdotal experience graduating from HS in the US having just caught the iPhone craze, here are some numbers that support that. It's well known that Apple has about a 50% marketshare overall in the US. But what about among the youth? If my hypothesis is correct, then the green bubble bullying should mean that more teenagers own iPhones than the general population. And indeed they do! Youth ownershop of iPhones in the US is a whopping 86%[0] - with 89% reporting that they are planning on buying a iPhone as their next phone. This also gives iMessage the marketshare in this specific niche to be the dominant messaging app. [0]https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/06/us-teen-iphone-ownership-reaches-all-time-high-continues-to-grow https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/06/us-teen-iphone-ow...
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  > It's well known that Apple has about a 50% marketshare overall in the US. But what about among the youth? If my hypothesis is correct, then the green bubble bullying should mean that more teenagers own iPhones than the general population. > And indeed they do! Your reasoning is flawless...
- tomjen3 5y ago
  That is interesting, and in my mind, insane. Here in Europe it seem to be about 50% as well, but we use either Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp, exactly because what is the point of using iMessage if you only have at most half your friends on it?
  - stu2b50 5y ago
    Because way more than 50% of your friends have it in the US; if you're a teenager, 80%+ of your friends have an iPhone. It's the default messaging app, and it works well, and it's become somewhat of a status symbol.
  - sfifs 5y ago
    It isn't. The only major countries in the world iPhone approaches 50% are US, UK, JP and the Gulf oil states.

LegitShady 5y ago

I. Don't know any person who actually thinks this way. If friends won't invite you or dates will ghost you based on messaging app you've dodged a bullet with not associating with those people.

Larrikin 5y ago

This was kind of a thing back when there was some what of a differentiation between the platforms when it came to features many many years ago and the concept of a premium Android was not really a thing, but in my friend groups that span between the ages of early twenties to late thirties, everyone has atleast a few messaging apps and really the only people that insist on group chats over imessage are my family group chats with people over the age of fifty. As a lifelong Android user it's never been an actual impediment to communication, especially with people I actually consider friends, but also with just random meets from apps like Tinder or meetup where you usually start with a phone number but then move to some other platform the first time you want to share any kind of multimedia. iMessage offers nothing that LINE, messenger, WhatsApp, snapchat etc don't already have besides being preinstalled if you own an iphone as far as I can tell.

usrusr 5y ago

If Apple makes important strategic decisions on observations like that they are on a path to failure in international markets due to lack of cultural understanding.