5 ms·

Whenever I see this iMessage/SMS, blue/green topic come up I descend into an internal debate that, as I get older, I am becoming increasingly familiar with. Th

Whenever I see this iMessage/SMS, blue/green topic come up I descend into an internal debate that, as I get older, I am becoming increasingly familiar with. The debate is that one where I am forced to reconcile whether I am too far removed from popular culture to see how this is a real issue versus accepting that the issue is entirely contrived.

randomdata 4y ago
The nice thing about getting even older is that you soon won't care about such reconciliation.
- jeremy0x4a 4y ago
  I appreciate this, but I will still cherish the joy of yelling at the children on my lawn, as I slowly descend into comfortable curmudgeonhood.
idk1 4y ago
It's certainly an issue with a lot of teenagers. Speaking broadly, social status and brands say a lot at that age, and you could miss out on friends or social occasions based on it. As an adult of course the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter, we grow up and realise that, but it certainly is a significant issue if it's affecting young peoples lives. So I'd say it's somewhere inbetween what you descibe, perhaps a bit contrived, but also could have a significant impact on some people. Side note - I have heard of people saying they won't date green or blue bubble people, but of course if someone takes that point of view as an adult then it's a good indicator to show how they think.
- browningstreet 4y ago
  > I have heard of people saying they won't date green or blue bubble people But how many times, really? It's like the missing iPhone headphone jack. The press and bloggers hammered away at it for years, making sure it was an ongoing meme in all coverage, but... do people really care? Some people, sure.. but enough for the coverage? Same with bubbles.
  - mdtusz 4y ago
    Sidebar, but I care about the headphone jack issue and am still annoyed by it. Bluetooth headphones just aren't very good, and we've all gotten in the habit of buying a new pair every few years because they either break, get lost, are unsupported, or have bad batteries. I previously had the same pair of IEMs for almost a decade that had better sound quality, replaceable cables and eartips, and didn't ever run out of battery. Never did I complain about the cables being annoying or in the way, and never did I complain about the presence of the headphone jack, or the Bluetooth chip onboard. Removing headphone jacks was a horrible misstep in my opinion and we're stuck with the path dependency it's created now. It's probably not long before we have laptops that omit 3.5mm audio jacks as well.
    - thatguy0900 4y ago
      I'm down to just using a permanent audio jack to USB c dongle for phones and my computer. Very very silly.
      - kroltan 4y ago
        USB-C is a waaaaay less stable connection than Micro-B or even a headphone jack. Having a phone in your pocket with an USB-C to P2 adapter is asking to have your sound stop every 5 minutes of walking.
  - marssaxman 4y ago
    I've cared about the missing headphone jack on a couple of occasions, when I wanted to stream some music off my partner's phone, but we had to listen to its tinny little speaker instead. Of course Apple does not need to care what I think, as I am not likely to buy their products anyway.
    - alvarezbjm-hn 4y ago
      Bluetooth will never replace wired because wired doesn't require yet another battery. Convenience and security, too.
- milkytron 4y ago
  > It's certainly an issue with a lot of teenagers. > As an adult of course the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter I disagree that the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter as an adult. I've had friend groups not include me in group messages because of it. Some have gotten visibly mad at me for having green bubbles and "breaking their chat". There is certain functionality that iPhones don't support in MMS chats that Android phones do (like adding a new member to the group chat). It does indicate how people think when they buy into the stigma, but also I think it's a general lack of understanding around why Apple keeps iMessage so tightly coupled to its ecosystem and hardware. And many people aren't interested in gaining that understanding. Social status is very important to many adults, and blue bubbles have become a way to display that social status.
adrr 4y ago
I would love to see a survey of mobile phone users to see if this matters to them. I’ll take a guess it doesn’t matter because Google would be flaunting the results. As for negative effects on kids. There’s more than just phones. Clothes, cars, vacations, social media posts, tutoring, sports. Maybe we should put everyone in uniforms, don’t allow kids drive to school, ban sports, and forbid them from talking about their vacations. And everyone was equal.
- OJFord 4y ago
  > I’ll take a guess it doesn’t matter because Google would be flaunting the results. I'm not sure how easy that would be - 'Apple will make you more popular if you use an iPhone instead of Android!'...'No no, that's bad, you don't want that, don't buy an iPhone!'
  - snazz 4y ago
    Google did an ad campaign recently that’s basically that line of thinking (plus trying to encourage them to adopt RCS): https://www.android.com/get-the-message/ https://www.android.com/get-the-message/
    - kaba0 4y ago
      Obligatory addition: Google’s version of RCS is just built on top of an open standard but is hardly more open then apple’s imessage so adopting that is not a solution either.
- criddell 4y ago
  It matters to me a little bit. A green bubble means the message is basically a postcard that the carrier can read. A blue bubble means the message is in an envelope that my carrier can’t read.
- thatguy0900 4y ago
  My school had uniforms, bullying doesn't stop. Kids are honestly just mean, and not idiots. You can dress a wealthy kid and a poor kid in the same clothes and you will not fool anyone in class about which one is the poor one.
colinmhayes 4y ago
The green texts isn't just branding or aesthetics. iMessage with non iphones is a legitimately degraded experience and the green texts exist to remind you of that, but even if they weren't green the experience would still be bad because apple realizes that forcing people to buy their phone if they want to have texts that send in under 5 seconds is an incredibly successful strategy. Having long form conversations over SMS just doesn't work given the time they take to send, and tons of iPhone users refuse to get a messaging app.
d23 4y ago
It's a really really really short article. Really short. Please. It gets to the point in the second paragraph: the green bubbles have bad contrast. It mentions the design of the green bubbles rank as "very poor" by accessibility standards. That's why it matters.
- jeremy0x4a 4y ago
  I get it. It should be noted that enabling the Increase Contrast accessibility option in iOS/iPadOS does correct the issue to an acceptable level. Whether that should be necessary is up for debate.

randomdata 4y ago

The nice thing about getting even older is that you soon won't care about such reconciliation.

jeremy0x4a 4y ago
I appreciate this, but I will still cherish the joy of yelling at the children on my lawn, as I slowly descend into comfortable curmudgeonhood.

idk1 4y ago

It's certainly an issue with a lot of teenagers. Speaking broadly, social status and brands say a lot at that age, and you could miss out on friends or social occasions based on it. As an adult of course the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter, we grow up and realise that, but it certainly is a significant issue if it's affecting young peoples lives. So I'd say it's somewhere inbetween what you descibe, perhaps a bit contrived, but also could have a significant impact on some people. Side note - I have heard of people saying they won't date green or blue bubble people, but of course if someone takes that point of view as an adult then it's a good indicator to show how they think.

browningstreet 4y ago
> I have heard of people saying they won't date green or blue bubble people But how many times, really? It's like the missing iPhone headphone jack. The press and bloggers hammered away at it for years, making sure it was an ongoing meme in all coverage, but... do people really care? Some people, sure.. but enough for the coverage? Same with bubbles.
- mdtusz 4y ago
  Sidebar, but I care about the headphone jack issue and am still annoyed by it. Bluetooth headphones just aren't very good, and we've all gotten in the habit of buying a new pair every few years because they either break, get lost, are unsupported, or have bad batteries. I previously had the same pair of IEMs for almost a decade that had better sound quality, replaceable cables and eartips, and didn't ever run out of battery. Never did I complain about the cables being annoying or in the way, and never did I complain about the presence of the headphone jack, or the Bluetooth chip onboard. Removing headphone jacks was a horrible misstep in my opinion and we're stuck with the path dependency it's created now. It's probably not long before we have laptops that omit 3.5mm audio jacks as well.
  - thatguy0900 4y ago
    I'm down to just using a permanent audio jack to USB c dongle for phones and my computer. Very very silly.
    - kroltan 4y ago
      USB-C is a waaaaay less stable connection than Micro-B or even a headphone jack. Having a phone in your pocket with an USB-C to P2 adapter is asking to have your sound stop every 5 minutes of walking.
- marssaxman 4y ago
  I've cared about the missing headphone jack on a couple of occasions, when I wanted to stream some music off my partner's phone, but we had to listen to its tinny little speaker instead. Of course Apple does not need to care what I think, as I am not likely to buy their products anyway.
  - alvarezbjm-hn 4y ago
    Bluetooth will never replace wired because wired doesn't require yet another battery. Convenience and security, too.
milkytron 4y ago
> It's certainly an issue with a lot of teenagers. > As an adult of course the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter I disagree that the green/blue bubbles simply don't matter as an adult. I've had friend groups not include me in group messages because of it. Some have gotten visibly mad at me for having green bubbles and "breaking their chat". There is certain functionality that iPhones don't support in MMS chats that Android phones do (like adding a new member to the group chat). It does indicate how people think when they buy into the stigma, but also I think it's a general lack of understanding around why Apple keeps iMessage so tightly coupled to its ecosystem and hardware. And many people aren't interested in gaining that understanding. Social status is very important to many adults, and blue bubbles have become a way to display that social status.

adrr 4y ago

I would love to see a survey of mobile phone users to see if this matters to them. I’ll take a guess it doesn’t matter because Google would be flaunting the results. As for negative effects on kids. There’s more than just phones. Clothes, cars, vacations, social media posts, tutoring, sports. Maybe we should put everyone in uniforms, don’t allow kids drive to school, ban sports, and forbid them from talking about their vacations. And everyone was equal.

OJFord 4y ago
> I’ll take a guess it doesn’t matter because Google would be flaunting the results. I'm not sure how easy that would be - 'Apple will make you more popular if you use an iPhone instead of Android!'...'No no, that's bad, you don't want that, don't buy an iPhone!'
- snazz 4y ago
  Google did an ad campaign recently that’s basically that line of thinking (plus trying to encourage them to adopt RCS): https://www.android.com/get-the-message/ https://www.android.com/get-the-message/
  - kaba0 4y ago
    Obligatory addition: Google’s version of RCS is just built on top of an open standard but is hardly more open then apple’s imessage so adopting that is not a solution either.
criddell 4y ago
It matters to me a little bit. A green bubble means the message is basically a postcard that the carrier can read. A blue bubble means the message is in an envelope that my carrier can’t read.
thatguy0900 4y ago
My school had uniforms, bullying doesn't stop. Kids are honestly just mean, and not idiots. You can dress a wealthy kid and a poor kid in the same clothes and you will not fool anyone in class about which one is the poor one.

colinmhayes 4y ago

The green texts isn't just branding or aesthetics. iMessage with non iphones is a legitimately degraded experience and the green texts exist to remind you of that, but even if they weren't green the experience would still be bad because apple realizes that forcing people to buy their phone if they want to have texts that send in under 5 seconds is an incredibly successful strategy. Having long form conversations over SMS just doesn't work given the time they take to send, and tons of iPhone users refuse to get a messaging app.

d23 4y ago

It's a really really really short article. Really short. Please. It gets to the point in the second paragraph: the green bubbles have bad contrast. It mentions the design of the green bubbles rank as "very poor" by accessibility standards. That's why it matters.

jeremy0x4a 4y ago
I get it. It should be noted that enabling the Increase Contrast accessibility option in iOS/iPadOS does correct the issue to an acceptable level. Whether that should be necessary is up for debate.