7 ms·

What phone platform is both open and lets you communicate over iMessage without absurd workarounds? To get a blue bubble you must give up control over your mob

What phone platform is both open and lets you communicate over iMessage without absurd workarounds? To get a blue bubble you must give up control over your mobile life to Apple.

__d 3y ago
So your choice is clear. What do you value more?
- howinteresting 3y ago
  In a just world you wouldn't have to make that choice.
  - alexdunmow 3y ago
    There's nothing just about this world, and if iPhones are your biggest concern in this regard then you're profiting from that injustice.
    - howinteresting 3y ago
      https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as
nobody9999 3y ago
>To get a blue bubble you must give up control over your mobile life to Apple. As someone who has never used Apple products (well, except for the OS on an Apple II I built from a kit as a high school project in 1983), I don't understand why a "blue bubble" is important. Would you mind explaining that to me? Not being snarky here, I just really don't understand what value there is in a "blue bubble."
- johnny22 3y ago
  it's a status marker. Only people who can afford the iphone get a blue bubble.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    > it's a status marker Not as much as you probably believe it is (at least in the US), given it has the majority smartphone owneship share here.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    This is such a tired cliche. How is something owned by 60% of the American market a “status symbol”?
- criddell 3y ago
  Blue means end-to-end encrypted. Green means plaintext.
- AngryData 3y ago
  It is a huge status symbol among the youth. Kids will discriminate against and even sometimes bully people for not having it. And there are certain features that only apple users can use over messaging that has no reasonable excuse for not allowing other mobile platforms to participate in other than to push kids into buying iphones so they aren't excluded. Effectively pushing kids into buying devices far more expensive and powerful than they actually have any usage for. And for kids of poorer families buying an iphone is a fairly large financial burden.
  - hnick 3y ago
    And on slightly older people on Tinder too, or so I've heard (Australia). But maybe for some it's a positive that those people filter them out.
  - realfeel78 3y ago
    You can get a perfectly functional used iPhone that runs the current OS for under $200. One only has to spend a lot if one wants the latest and greatest.
rad_gruchalski 3y ago
Why is it important? The world communicates through whatsapp, signal, telegram and some other stuff in China. The blue bubble argument is a red herring.
iamtedd 3y ago
The angst over a blue bubble remains the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
- nerdix 3y ago
  Its getting to the point now where I'm never going to buy an iPhone simply because getting excluded over a green bubble seems like a good way to filter stupid people out of your life.
- Karunamon 3y ago
  It's not the color of the message bubble, that's just a shorthand for the actual problem: it's that iMessage has more functionality than SMS, and inviting a SMS user to a iMessage chat works but degrades the experience for all participants. It is both awkward (for instance, using a reaction generates a "so and so liked your thing" message) and insecure (now every word in a chat gets blasted out over the known-insecure medium).
  - iamtedd 3y ago
    Those reactions seem to work for me in Aus., on Android. And as for group chats, you should understand that if you start one on iMessage, you shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't work cross-platform. It could, but Apple deliberately doesn't want to make an iMessage app for Android. Understand the implications of using a proprietary system.
- howinteresting 3y ago
  I personally don't give a shit about them, everyone I know uses Signal or maybe WhatsApp. But lots of people do.

What phone platform is both open and lets you communicate over iMessage without absurd workarounds? To get a blue bubble you must give up control over your mobile life to Apple.

__d 3y ago

So your choice is clear. What do you value more?

howinteresting 3y ago
In a just world you wouldn't have to make that choice.
- alexdunmow 3y ago
  There's nothing just about this world, and if iPhones are your biggest concern in this regard then you're profiting from that injustice.
  - howinteresting 3y ago
    https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as

nobody9999 3y ago

>To get a blue bubble you must give up control over your mobile life to Apple. As someone who has never used Apple products (well, except for the OS on an Apple II I built from a kit as a high school project in 1983), I don't understand why a "blue bubble" is important. Would you mind explaining that to me? Not being snarky here, I just really don't understand what value there is in a "blue bubble."

johnny22 3y ago
it's a status marker. Only people who can afford the iphone get a blue bubble.
- filoleg 3y ago
  > it's a status marker Not as much as you probably believe it is (at least in the US), given it has the majority smartphone owneship share here.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  This is such a tired cliche. How is something owned by 60% of the American market a “status symbol”?
criddell 3y ago
Blue means end-to-end encrypted. Green means plaintext.
AngryData 3y ago
It is a huge status symbol among the youth. Kids will discriminate against and even sometimes bully people for not having it. And there are certain features that only apple users can use over messaging that has no reasonable excuse for not allowing other mobile platforms to participate in other than to push kids into buying iphones so they aren't excluded. Effectively pushing kids into buying devices far more expensive and powerful than they actually have any usage for. And for kids of poorer families buying an iphone is a fairly large financial burden.
- hnick 3y ago
  And on slightly older people on Tinder too, or so I've heard (Australia). But maybe for some it's a positive that those people filter them out.
- realfeel78 3y ago
  You can get a perfectly functional used iPhone that runs the current OS for under $200. One only has to spend a lot if one wants the latest and greatest.

rad_gruchalski 3y ago

Why is it important? The world communicates through whatsapp, signal, telegram and some other stuff in China. The blue bubble argument is a red herring.

iamtedd 3y ago

The angst over a blue bubble remains the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

nerdix 3y ago
Its getting to the point now where I'm never going to buy an iPhone simply because getting excluded over a green bubble seems like a good way to filter stupid people out of your life.
Karunamon 3y ago
It's not the color of the message bubble, that's just a shorthand for the actual problem: it's that iMessage has more functionality than SMS, and inviting a SMS user to a iMessage chat works but degrades the experience for all participants. It is both awkward (for instance, using a reaction generates a "so and so liked your thing" message) and insecure (now every word in a chat gets blasted out over the known-insecure medium).
- iamtedd 3y ago
  Those reactions seem to work for me in Aus., on Android. And as for group chats, you should understand that if you start one on iMessage, you shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't work cross-platform. It could, but Apple deliberately doesn't want to make an iMessage app for Android. Understand the implications of using a proprietary system.
howinteresting 3y ago
I personally don't give a shit about them, everyone I know uses Signal or maybe WhatsApp. But lots of people do.