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The Green is historical, not a specific decision by Apple to hinder reading texts. Before iOS 5, and the release of iMessage, all messages on iOS were green.

The Green is historical, not a specific decision by Apple to hinder reading texts. Before iOS 5, and the release of iMessage, all messages on iOS were green. That Google is painting this as something else speaks to how disingenuous this whole conversation has gotten, in all corners.

zoover2020 4y ago
But it turns automatically green when you text a non iPhone device. You have no idea how much of a hot topic this is I modern bullying
- etchalon 4y ago
  It turns green when the message is sent over SMS, not when you text a "non-Apple device". You can send SMS messages to Apple devices, from an Apple device, if you're not signed into iMessage, or they're not, or if your data connectivity is limited, or theirs is.
  - olyjohn 4y ago
    This! I got sick of iMessage, and I disabled it completely on my iPhone. Everything was SMS, and it made moving my sim card between devices easier. I found that if you don't explicitly turn off iMessage before you ditch your iPhone, no other iMessage users will be able to message you. All my messages were green all the time.
- pharmakom 4y ago
  If apple made them all the same color I think bullying would change by around 0%
- riversflow 4y ago
  This is ridiculous. As someone who suffered greatly from bullying throughout their education, the only way to deal with bullying is punishing bullies. Bullies will always find something to bully others for, thats why they are bullies and not just expressing a preference. I’m fairly convinced the bullying problem is a result of a society who treat kids as their parent’s property instead of communal property. Parents enable bullying.
015a 4y ago
So, you're asserting that the color choice of the bubbles ten years ago was unintentional? That whatever developer coded it had no instruction, Jony Ive & Steve Jobs were silent, and they used a random number generator to pick the hex code? And additionally, you're asserting that its impossible to change or improve? That its just such an intractable problem which we inherited, and changing it would be such a herculean effort that its not worth moving the needle on? I've never seen the codebase for the iOS messages app. I believe, even acknowledging that, its probably an absolute mess of legacy code, and I have a ton of sympathy for the developers working on it. I also believe, even acknowledging that, that changing one color is something an intern could do (and because its a big tech product org, there'd be fifty user studies and three orgs of product managers involved and Tim Cook would get a say in it, but those are manufactured problems. Also, let's be clear; if Jobs were still alive & in control, even all those manufactured roadblocks would be torn down, if it were a change he cared to prioritize, because that's the kind of leader he was). Inaction is Intentional. Inaction is Intentional. Inaction is Intentional.
- etchalon 4y ago
  I'm asserting that a decision was made that SMS messages were green. Then a decision was made that iMessage messages would be blue. I'm asserting this was not done with animosity. It was a decision by Apple's UX team to make it easy to visually identify the difference between the message mechanics and capabilities of the end-user. It is remarkably simple, effective and easily understood. If Apple chose to make it so there was no visual distinction between the message sending mechanisms, that would be a worse, and more confusing, user experience. If Apple changed the colors, whatever the new colors they chose to use would just be the new focus of the debate. It would become "Orange Bubbles vs Blue Bubbles" or "Purple Bubbles vs Blue Bubbles". People would argue that Apple chose the new color based on some secondary negative characteristic of the new color, just as they do today with green.
  - 0x457 4y ago
    While true, prior iMessage it was only green bubbles. However, iMessage was released with iOS5 and iOS5 and every iOS prior apple went flat, used very different green: https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/9ddbf98c-4b94-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/ios4-group-messaging.png https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/9ddbf98c-4b94-11e4-b6... Now compare it to green bubbles today. Anyways, when I had iPhone, flat green bubbles annoyed me. Not because "hurr-durr I have a iPhone and you don't" but because SMS lacked many features and was hella slow to send. Plus, pretty much anywhere I lived I had horrible cellphone reception which made sending SMS a nightmare.
Lammy 4y ago
> Before iOS 5, and the release of iMessage, all messages on iOS were green. The green is inherited from iChat on Mac OS X, which used black text for the green bubbles: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/archive/reviews/02q3/macosx-10.2/images/ichat.jpg https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/archive/revie...

zoover2020 4y ago

But it turns automatically green when you text a non iPhone device. You have no idea how much of a hot topic this is I modern bullying

etchalon 4y ago
It turns green when the message is sent over SMS, not when you text a "non-Apple device". You can send SMS messages to Apple devices, from an Apple device, if you're not signed into iMessage, or they're not, or if your data connectivity is limited, or theirs is.
- olyjohn 4y ago
  This! I got sick of iMessage, and I disabled it completely on my iPhone. Everything was SMS, and it made moving my sim card between devices easier. I found that if you don't explicitly turn off iMessage before you ditch your iPhone, no other iMessage users will be able to message you. All my messages were green all the time.
pharmakom 4y ago
If apple made them all the same color I think bullying would change by around 0%
riversflow 4y ago
This is ridiculous. As someone who suffered greatly from bullying throughout their education, the only way to deal with bullying is punishing bullies. Bullies will always find something to bully others for, thats why they are bullies and not just expressing a preference. I’m fairly convinced the bullying problem is a result of a society who treat kids as their parent’s property instead of communal property. Parents enable bullying.

015a 4y ago

So, you're asserting that the color choice of the bubbles ten years ago was unintentional? That whatever developer coded it had no instruction, Jony Ive & Steve Jobs were silent, and they used a random number generator to pick the hex code? And additionally, you're asserting that its impossible to change or improve? That its just such an intractable problem which we inherited, and changing it would be such a herculean effort that its not worth moving the needle on? I've never seen the codebase for the iOS messages app. I believe, even acknowledging that, its probably an absolute mess of legacy code, and I have a ton of sympathy for the developers working on it. I also believe, even acknowledging that, that changing one color is something an intern could do (and because its a big tech product org, there'd be fifty user studies and three orgs of product managers involved and Tim Cook would get a say in it, but those are manufactured problems. Also, let's be clear; if Jobs were still alive & in control, even all those manufactured roadblocks would be torn down, if it were a change he cared to prioritize, because that's the kind of leader he was). Inaction is Intentional. Inaction is Intentional. Inaction is Intentional.

etchalon 4y ago
I'm asserting that a decision was made that SMS messages were green. Then a decision was made that iMessage messages would be blue. I'm asserting this was not done with animosity. It was a decision by Apple's UX team to make it easy to visually identify the difference between the message mechanics and capabilities of the end-user. It is remarkably simple, effective and easily understood. If Apple chose to make it so there was no visual distinction between the message sending mechanisms, that would be a worse, and more confusing, user experience. If Apple changed the colors, whatever the new colors they chose to use would just be the new focus of the debate. It would become "Orange Bubbles vs Blue Bubbles" or "Purple Bubbles vs Blue Bubbles". People would argue that Apple chose the new color based on some secondary negative characteristic of the new color, just as they do today with green.
- 0x457 4y ago
  While true, prior iMessage it was only green bubbles. However, iMessage was released with iOS5 and iOS5 and every iOS prior apple went flat, used very different green: https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/9ddbf98c-4b94-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/ios4-group-messaging.png https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/9ddbf98c-4b94-11e4-b6... Now compare it to green bubbles today. Anyways, when I had iPhone, flat green bubbles annoyed me. Not because "hurr-durr I have a iPhone and you don't" but because SMS lacked many features and was hella slow to send. Plus, pretty much anywhere I lived I had horrible cellphone reception which made sending SMS a nightmare.

Lammy 4y ago

> Before iOS 5, and the release of iMessage, all messages on iOS were green. The green is inherited from iChat on Mac OS X, which used black text for the green bubbles: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/archive/reviews/02q3/macosx-10.2/images/ichat.jpg https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/archive/revie...