5 ms·

This is the most trivial complaint I've ever read. I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles - it just means that it hasn't been sent via iMe

This is the most trivial complaint I've ever read. I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles - it just means that it hasn't been sent via iMessage - if I send to an iPhone and sending falls back to SMS it looks just the same. I can't believe people get that upset about green v blue.

dcormier 4y ago
That’s very ableist of you. About 1 in 12 males are colorblind. I’m in this group. I find white text on a bright green background very difficult to read.
- joes_hk 4y ago
  So making the bubble blue instead of green without changing the protocol would be already ok for you? How do you cope with this right now, do you and your social group use alternatives to iMessage like signal or telegram?
- azinman2 4y ago
  It’s the text you send, not incoming, so you don’t need to read it much. There’s also various accessibility features to help with color across the os.
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    Not only that, but these are complaints coming from non-iPhone users, by definition, which means it is totally up to Android what color their messages are displayed in.
    - paranoidrobot 4y ago
      iPhone User texts Android user - the iPhone user sees their outbound message as green on white. This is not up to Android, it is up to Apple how their UX displays texts to non-Apple users.
- cgrealy 4y ago
  Which is why there are accessibility settings for exactly that.
  - chizhik-pyzhik 4y ago
    sure, but why keep an inaccessible default?
    - radicaldreamer 4y ago
      Because it doesn’t affect everyone and aesthetics are not equal to accessibility? I do agree that the green bubbles aren’t great looking but thats what they chose for iOS even prior to iMessage existing.
      - nkozyra 4y ago
        > Because it doesn’t affect everyone This isn't a good answer. We can use sensible attractive UI/UX defaults without being exclusive.
      - bentcorner 4y ago
        > Because it doesn’t affect everyone and aesthetics are not equal to accessibility? The thing with accessibility is that it does affect everyone. If you get woken up by a call and open iMessage in the middle of the night, being able to read the message accurately while blinking away eye gunk matters. Better contrast helps you read your text message if your phone is on a table across from you lying flat. There's going to be times you're trying to read a message and your phone won't be 100% in front of you at arms length and you are able to take the time to bring the phone into focus with proper lighting around you.
        inferiorhuman 4y ago
        If you get woken up by a call and open iMessage in the middle of the night, being able to read the message accurately while blinking away eye gunk matters. The only green text bubbles are for text you send via SMS. Incoming text is styled the same regardless of protocol.
- gjs278 4y ago
- junofan 4y ago
  You read the messages you send?
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    You don’t?
    - phinnaeus 4y ago
      Not after I send them...
- water554 4y ago
  I am a colorblind male and I apologize on behalf of colorblind people using the word ableist. The bubble text is fine for me.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- psyc 4y ago
  This comment says almost exactly the same thing without the first sentence. This trend of everyone calling everyone else a something-ist can’t die fast enough.
  - dcormier 4y ago
    You’re right. I should’ve left it off. I was frustrated.
  - muttled 4y ago
    I know it's awful that I thought of this, but I half-expected your second sentence to call him a label-ist.
- DoneWithAllThat 4y ago
  Are 1 in 12 colorblind in a way that makes the white on green difficult to read What if 3 in 12 who aren’t colorblind find it easier to read white on green? Not everything is worthy of a social justice battle.
- viktorcode 4y ago
  On iPhone you can enable one of several system-wide colour modes designed for colour-blind. Give it a try.
hgsgm 4y ago
brokencode 4y ago
If you read the article, you’d know that there are actually multiple functional issues due to Apple insisting on SMS/MMS.
- latexr 4y ago
  From the guidelines¹: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." Regardless if they read the article or not, they were addressing one specific complaint which is unrelated to the others. ¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
r_klancer 4y ago
Let's be clear. Green vs blue is a bit of a red herring. The real issue is that Apple has to have some fallback protocol for texting with non-iMessage devices, but refusing to upgrade the fallback protocol beyond SMS/MMS makes the texting experience worse for everyone, as described in the article. (To avoid additional red herrings. No one is thinking here about opening up iMessage itself to non-Apple clients, just upgrading the fallback option. Also, I can't speak for everyone, but among the non-terminally-online Gen Xer and late-Millennial Americans I know, "texting" means using the built-in app on your phone. Switching to another app is a relationship step. Many of them are blithely unaware that they can't "just" text a photo or video to me or other Android users, nor that I can't just sign out of a group chat when I feel like it.)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- snowwrestler 4y ago
  SMS is also the fallback protocol for iMessage. If I’m in a place with poor signal, even my texts from the Messages app on my iPhone to my spouse’s iPhone go as SMS. Edit to add: those bubbles are green too. That’s what the bubble colors really mean. Blue and green are not iPhone vs Android, it’s iMessage (end to end encrypted) vs SMS (less secure, less private).
neilv 4y ago
> I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles Besides the other issues... as soon as I heard that adolescents and teens (i.e., hyper-self-conscious, wanting group acceptance, figuring out social status) would be appearing differently in chats with schoolmates, based on whether they used Apple or non-Apple... that sure is a way to sell them Apples.
- phire 4y ago
  Some teens buy old and cheap iphones that aren't really useable. And then they leave them plugged in at home and forward the messages to their Android device. Just so that they show up as a blue bubble on their friends phones.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Status obsessions of teens should not be a serious consideration in how messaging communications work.
- mountain_peak 4y ago
  Another comment alluded to this, but small-minded people will always find a discriminant - toys, clothes, shoes, hair, height, weight, university, degree, house, cottage, trips, car, yacht, private jet, donations, endowments, and so on. Explore what your heart says to, make, buy and enjoy the things you love, and don't sweat the 'bullies'.
Liquix 4y ago
Google conclusively found there was a statistically most pleasing shade of blue in their 41 Shades of Blue experiment. This type of testing can be and is being leveraged for profit. It's not too difficult to imagine Apple tuning iMessage vs. SMS colors to be perfectly calming/nauseating respectively.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  It's also worth noting that the current version of iMessage uses contrast levels that don't follow Apple's own HIG (the early green bubbles did, but the shade of green has gotten lighter and lighter over time)

dcormier 4y ago

That’s very ableist of you. About 1 in 12 males are colorblind. I’m in this group. I find white text on a bright green background very difficult to read.

joes_hk 4y ago
So making the bubble blue instead of green without changing the protocol would be already ok for you? How do you cope with this right now, do you and your social group use alternatives to iMessage like signal or telegram?
azinman2 4y ago
It’s the text you send, not incoming, so you don’t need to read it much. There’s also various accessibility features to help with color across the os.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Not only that, but these are complaints coming from non-iPhone users, by definition, which means it is totally up to Android what color their messages are displayed in.
  - paranoidrobot 4y ago
    iPhone User texts Android user - the iPhone user sees their outbound message as green on white. This is not up to Android, it is up to Apple how their UX displays texts to non-Apple users.
cgrealy 4y ago
Which is why there are accessibility settings for exactly that.
- chizhik-pyzhik 4y ago
  sure, but why keep an inaccessible default?
  - radicaldreamer 4y ago
    Because it doesn’t affect everyone and aesthetics are not equal to accessibility? I do agree that the green bubbles aren’t great looking but thats what they chose for iOS even prior to iMessage existing.
    - nkozyra 4y ago
      > Because it doesn’t affect everyone This isn't a good answer. We can use sensible attractive UI/UX defaults without being exclusive.
    - bentcorner 4y ago
      > Because it doesn’t affect everyone and aesthetics are not equal to accessibility? The thing with accessibility is that it does affect everyone. If you get woken up by a call and open iMessage in the middle of the night, being able to read the message accurately while blinking away eye gunk matters. Better contrast helps you read your text message if your phone is on a table across from you lying flat. There's going to be times you're trying to read a message and your phone won't be 100% in front of you at arms length and you are able to take the time to bring the phone into focus with proper lighting around you.
      - inferiorhuman 4y ago
        If you get woken up by a call and open iMessage in the middle of the night, being able to read the message accurately while blinking away eye gunk matters. The only green text bubbles are for text you send via SMS. Incoming text is styled the same regardless of protocol.
gjs278 4y ago
junofan 4y ago
You read the messages you send?
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  You don’t?
  - phinnaeus 4y ago
    Not after I send them...
water554 4y ago
I am a colorblind male and I apologize on behalf of colorblind people using the word ableist. The bubble text is fine for me.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
psyc 4y ago
This comment says almost exactly the same thing without the first sentence. This trend of everyone calling everyone else a something-ist can’t die fast enough.
- dcormier 4y ago
  You’re right. I should’ve left it off. I was frustrated.
- muttled 4y ago
  I know it's awful that I thought of this, but I half-expected your second sentence to call him a label-ist.
DoneWithAllThat 4y ago
Are 1 in 12 colorblind in a way that makes the white on green difficult to read What if 3 in 12 who aren’t colorblind find it easier to read white on green? Not everything is worthy of a social justice battle.
viktorcode 4y ago
On iPhone you can enable one of several system-wide colour modes designed for colour-blind. Give it a try.

hgsgm 4y ago

brokencode 4y ago

If you read the article, you’d know that there are actually multiple functional issues due to Apple insisting on SMS/MMS.

latexr 4y ago
From the guidelines¹: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." Regardless if they read the article or not, they were addressing one specific complaint which is unrelated to the others. ¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

r_klancer 4y ago

Let's be clear. Green vs blue is a bit of a red herring. The real issue is that Apple has to have some fallback protocol for texting with non-iMessage devices, but refusing to upgrade the fallback protocol beyond SMS/MMS makes the texting experience worse for everyone, as described in the article. (To avoid additional red herrings. No one is thinking here about opening up iMessage itself to non-Apple clients, just upgrading the fallback option. Also, I can't speak for everyone, but among the non-terminally-online Gen Xer and late-Millennial Americans I know, "texting" means using the built-in app on your phone. Switching to another app is a relationship step. Many of them are blithely unaware that they can't "just" text a photo or video to me or other Android users, nor that I can't just sign out of a group chat when I feel like it.)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
snowwrestler 4y ago
SMS is also the fallback protocol for iMessage. If I’m in a place with poor signal, even my texts from the Messages app on my iPhone to my spouse’s iPhone go as SMS. Edit to add: those bubbles are green too. That’s what the bubble colors really mean. Blue and green are not iPhone vs Android, it’s iMessage (end to end encrypted) vs SMS (less secure, less private).

neilv 4y ago

> I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles Besides the other issues... as soon as I heard that adolescents and teens (i.e., hyper-self-conscious, wanting group acceptance, figuring out social status) would be appearing differently in chats with schoolmates, based on whether they used Apple or non-Apple... that sure is a way to sell them Apples.

phire 4y ago
Some teens buy old and cheap iphones that aren't really useable. And then they leave them plugged in at home and forward the messages to their Android device. Just so that they show up as a blue bubble on their friends phones.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Status obsessions of teens should not be a serious consideration in how messaging communications work.
mountain_peak 4y ago
Another comment alluded to this, but small-minded people will always find a discriminant - toys, clothes, shoes, hair, height, weight, university, degree, house, cottage, trips, car, yacht, private jet, donations, endowments, and so on. Explore what your heart says to, make, buy and enjoy the things you love, and don't sweat the 'bullies'.

Liquix 4y ago

Google conclusively found there was a statistically most pleasing shade of blue in their 41 Shades of Blue experiment. This type of testing can be and is being leveraged for profit. It's not too difficult to imagine Apple tuning iMessage vs. SMS colors to be perfectly calming/nauseating respectively.

Rebelgecko 4y ago
It's also worth noting that the current version of iMessage uses contrast levels that don't follow Apple's own HIG (the early green bubbles did, but the shade of green has gotten lighter and lighter over time)