4 ms·

When will people realize that the point of differentiating between Android/iOS bubbles isn’t about discriminating against teenagers, but rather it’s about secur

When will people realize that the point of differentiating between Android/iOS bubbles isn’t about discriminating against teenagers, but rather it’s about security. If my messages are being sent through an insecure protocol that leaks my messages to the police, carrier, and skids with a rtl-SDR (SMS) rather than a secure encrypted protocol (iMessage), I want it to be obvious. They have every reason to make “green bubbles” look toxic and off putting, because unencrypted SMS is genuinely hazardous.

asdajksah2123 4y ago
The point is to make non iPhones uncool.
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  No, it’s to indicate when you are texting someone over an insecure protocol. This is just like saying the colored HTTPS symbol in the browser toolbar on websites that support SSL was designed to make websites without SSL look uncool.
MAGZine 4y ago
RCS has end to end encryption. When I text other android users, my messages are encrypted. When I text an iPhone, they are not. Stop supporting closed protocols and bad-faith actors.
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  RCS isn’t anywhere nearly as widely adopted as SMS, depends entirely on the carrier setting it up properly, and didn’t get end to end encryption until relatively recently. Many years after this whole green vs. blue debacle started. Once 99% of phones and carriers support RCS then maybe you could make this argument, but it won’t be for several years.
  - MAGZine 4y ago
    anecdotally, in the US/Canada, everytime I text someone running android, I get e2e encryption. Most US carriers have rolled it out by now (or can be completely circumvented by using Android Messages app) and the green bubble teasing seems like a USA specific phenomena. Anyhow, so what you mean to say, is that it's not about security (because it's present and accessible), but it's about appearances. And worst, the platform perpetuating the the appearances is not making any moves to secure it's messaging to non-Apple devices. Unacceptable.
schroeding 4y ago
The shade of low-contrast-y green is similar to the one used by some browsers not too long ago when an EV TLS certificate was used, to underline the security of the connection. If it's the goal to implicate danger, this strikes me as a weird colour choice for dangerous messages, to be honest. This whole "thing" around "bad" green vs blue message bubbles appears a bit, for the lack of a better word, insane to me as a non-american. The bubbles are fine. IMO, the problem is very obviously that kids can be cruel jerks and "not having an iPhone" is a social stigma for US teenagers, just like "not having a flashy cell phone with Bluetooth and MMS" was 15 years ago. Changing the colour will not fix this stigma, there still isn't an Apple on the back of the Android phones.
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  If they put a more fitting skull or danger icon on the bubbles instead people would really lose their shit.
staticassertion 4y ago
That makes very little sense. If it's for security it does a terrible job of conveying that, nor would it help anything since you're already in the conversation with that person.

asdajksah2123 4y ago

The point is to make non iPhones uncool.

unknownaccount 4y ago
No, it’s to indicate when you are texting someone over an insecure protocol. This is just like saying the colored HTTPS symbol in the browser toolbar on websites that support SSL was designed to make websites without SSL look uncool.

MAGZine 4y ago

RCS has end to end encryption. When I text other android users, my messages are encrypted. When I text an iPhone, they are not. Stop supporting closed protocols and bad-faith actors.

unknownaccount 4y ago
RCS isn’t anywhere nearly as widely adopted as SMS, depends entirely on the carrier setting it up properly, and didn’t get end to end encryption until relatively recently. Many years after this whole green vs. blue debacle started. Once 99% of phones and carriers support RCS then maybe you could make this argument, but it won’t be for several years.
- MAGZine 4y ago
  anecdotally, in the US/Canada, everytime I text someone running android, I get e2e encryption. Most US carriers have rolled it out by now (or can be completely circumvented by using Android Messages app) and the green bubble teasing seems like a USA specific phenomena. Anyhow, so what you mean to say, is that it's not about security (because it's present and accessible), but it's about appearances. And worst, the platform perpetuating the the appearances is not making any moves to secure it's messaging to non-Apple devices. Unacceptable.

schroeding 4y ago

The shade of low-contrast-y green is similar to the one used by some browsers not too long ago when an EV TLS certificate was used, to underline the security of the connection. If it's the goal to implicate danger, this strikes me as a weird colour choice for dangerous messages, to be honest. This whole "thing" around "bad" green vs blue message bubbles appears a bit, for the lack of a better word, insane to me as a non-american. The bubbles are fine. IMO, the problem is very obviously that kids can be cruel jerks and "not having an iPhone" is a social stigma for US teenagers, just like "not having a flashy cell phone with Bluetooth and MMS" was 15 years ago. Changing the colour will not fix this stigma, there still isn't an Apple on the back of the Android phones.

unknownaccount 4y ago
If they put a more fitting skull or danger icon on the bubbles instead people would really lose their shit.

staticassertion 4y ago

That makes very little sense. If it's for security it does a terrible job of conveying that, nor would it help anything since you're already in the conversation with that person.