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"FaceTime on Android(browser) is such a brilliant way of guaranteeing your Android friends will always have a lesser experience without completing excluding the

by xd1936 5y ago

"FaceTime on Android(browser) is such a brilliant way of guaranteeing your Android friends will always have a lesser experience without completing excluding them. The video chat version of green bubbles."[1] 1. https://twitter.com/russellholly/status/1401950208133632004 https://twitter.com/russellholly/status/1401950208133632004

threatofrain 5y ago
I don't think it's productive to equate the green/blue color thing with the accessibility or parity of experience between web apps and native apps. The green/blue distinction is very meaningful. It tells you whether your chats are encrypted, which is not a default to SMS technology. In fact it would be more honest or accurate for Apple to display a padlock to inform you that you're secure; instead we have colors.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Also, international SMS/MMS incurs additional costs, so blue in iMessages lets me know it will not cost me anything, whereas green might be depending on the number to which I am sending SMS/MMS. Also, MMS is terrible.
  - 542458 5y ago
    Heck, domestic SMS costs money for lots of people!
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      That would be amazing to me in the US, I assumed everyone had unlimited SMS/MMS/within the US phone calls. I have not shopped for mobile plans in over a decade though.
      - SilverRed 5y ago
        It varies by country. In Australia basically all phone plans have unlimited SMS but in places like south america and africa it seems common to charge huge rates for sms which is why whatsapp is so big over there.
        joshuaissac 5y ago
        Unlimited SMS allowances are common in the UK, but people still use WhatsApp instead of SMS.
      - awad 5y ago
        It's probable that a large majority have domestic SMS for free/included-in-plan but most probably still have to pay for international SMS.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  The colours are definitely there to indicate who doesn’t have an iDevice. They predate iMessage being end-to-end encrypted, and predates Apples current privacy push. Additionally Apple senior leaders have got up on stage and joked about how people with green bubbles are second class friends. All of that together makes me think the bubble colours are primarily there to gently nudge people into getting their friends and family to buy iPhones. Which is also the reason why iMessage doesn’t have an Android app, as stated in an internal Apple email made public in the Epic games lawsuit.
  - madeofpalk 5y ago
    > They predate iMessage being end-to-end encrypted There was a time when iMessage was not end-to-end encrypted? I thought it launched like that on day 1.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      I believe iMessage got E2E encryption fairly quickly after it's release (late 2013 if memory serves), but the "green bubble" did exist in that twilight-zone between both periods.
  - dagmx 5y ago
    They exist to differentiate SMS vs iMessage. This is important between fully iOS users too if data isn't available, to signify it sent via SMS.
  - melq 5y ago
    >All of that together makes me think the bubble colours are primarily there to gently nudge people into getting their friends and family to buy iPhones. I don't think anyone can argue with a straight face that the color-coded messages aren't at least partially motivated by creating an in-crowd and out-crowd dichotomy, but its a stretch to say that they are there _primarily_ to get Apple users to bully their friends into switching platforms. Like many others have pointed out, there are a variety of reasons why one would want an obvious distinction between SMS and iMessage messages. the obvious reasons: - knowing when your communication is encrypted - knowing when your going to incur outrageous fees from your service provider (cheap text messaging is not ubiquitous across the modern world) - knowing who you can communicate with without a cell signal (eg during flights, in remote areas, etc) but also it serves a useful purpose for less advanced/savvy users to reduce confusion on feature discrepancies. There are a lot of niceties/features in iMessage that modern users might not realize aren't common to SMS messages. The average iMessage user might not be aware that they can't just send a huge video file over SMS, or a PDF, or send messages with the 'effects' Apple offers, or have named group chats that people have the option of joining or leaving, etc. The 'cool kid' dynamic that the color coding creates is definitely not an accident, but there are obvious benefits to it that aren't nefarious in nature.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  For a company of Apple's size, it would be fairly trivial to roll out support for RCS, which would give Apple users an easy way to send encrypted messages to non-Apple users. I wonder if they'd make the messages blue or green. Right now we're in a weird spot where sending a text from android -> Android is usually encrypted (via RCS), and Apple -> Apple is encrypted, but between the platforms they're not. I assume Google and its users would love if Apple opted to support RCS, and I assume Google would also love if Apple built iMessage for Android. Apple's chosen to do neither, despite the fact it would give its users a richer messaging experience and a way to encrypt more of their communications. It's their choice, but it boggles my mind that people defend it.

by xd1936 5y ago

threatofrain 5y ago

I don't think it's productive to equate the green/blue color thing with the accessibility or parity of experience between web apps and native apps. The green/blue distinction is very meaningful. It tells you whether your chats are encrypted, which is not a default to SMS technology. In fact it would be more honest or accurate for Apple to display a padlock to inform you that you're secure; instead we have colors.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Also, international SMS/MMS incurs additional costs, so blue in iMessages lets me know it will not cost me anything, whereas green might be depending on the number to which I am sending SMS/MMS. Also, MMS is terrible.
- 542458 5y ago
  Heck, domestic SMS costs money for lots of people!
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    That would be amazing to me in the US, I assumed everyone had unlimited SMS/MMS/within the US phone calls. I have not shopped for mobile plans in over a decade though.
    - SilverRed 5y ago
      It varies by country. In Australia basically all phone plans have unlimited SMS but in places like south america and africa it seems common to charge huge rates for sms which is why whatsapp is so big over there.
      - joshuaissac 5y ago
        Unlimited SMS allowances are common in the UK, but people still use WhatsApp instead of SMS.
    - awad 5y ago
      It's probable that a large majority have domestic SMS for free/included-in-plan but most probably still have to pay for international SMS.
avianlyric 5y ago
The colours are definitely there to indicate who doesn’t have an iDevice. They predate iMessage being end-to-end encrypted, and predates Apples current privacy push. Additionally Apple senior leaders have got up on stage and joked about how people with green bubbles are second class friends. All of that together makes me think the bubble colours are primarily there to gently nudge people into getting their friends and family to buy iPhones. Which is also the reason why iMessage doesn’t have an Android app, as stated in an internal Apple email made public in the Epic games lawsuit.
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  > They predate iMessage being end-to-end encrypted There was a time when iMessage was not end-to-end encrypted? I thought it launched like that on day 1.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    I believe iMessage got E2E encryption fairly quickly after it's release (late 2013 if memory serves), but the "green bubble" did exist in that twilight-zone between both periods.
- dagmx 5y ago
  They exist to differentiate SMS vs iMessage. This is important between fully iOS users too if data isn't available, to signify it sent via SMS.
- melq 5y ago
  >All of that together makes me think the bubble colours are primarily there to gently nudge people into getting their friends and family to buy iPhones. I don't think anyone can argue with a straight face that the color-coded messages aren't at least partially motivated by creating an in-crowd and out-crowd dichotomy, but its a stretch to say that they are there _primarily_ to get Apple users to bully their friends into switching platforms. Like many others have pointed out, there are a variety of reasons why one would want an obvious distinction between SMS and iMessage messages. the obvious reasons: - knowing when your communication is encrypted - knowing when your going to incur outrageous fees from your service provider (cheap text messaging is not ubiquitous across the modern world) - knowing who you can communicate with without a cell signal (eg during flights, in remote areas, etc) but also it serves a useful purpose for less advanced/savvy users to reduce confusion on feature discrepancies. There are a lot of niceties/features in iMessage that modern users might not realize aren't common to SMS messages. The average iMessage user might not be aware that they can't just send a huge video file over SMS, or a PDF, or send messages with the 'effects' Apple offers, or have named group chats that people have the option of joining or leaving, etc. The 'cool kid' dynamic that the color coding creates is definitely not an accident, but there are obvious benefits to it that aren't nefarious in nature.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
For a company of Apple's size, it would be fairly trivial to roll out support for RCS, which would give Apple users an easy way to send encrypted messages to non-Apple users. I wonder if they'd make the messages blue or green. Right now we're in a weird spot where sending a text from android -> Android is usually encrypted (via RCS), and Apple -> Apple is encrypted, but between the platforms they're not. I assume Google and its users would love if Apple opted to support RCS, and I assume Google would also love if Apple built iMessage for Android. Apple's chosen to do neither, despite the fact it would give its users a richer messaging experience and a way to encrypt more of their communications. It's their choice, but it boggles my mind that people defend it.