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My understanding is that there’s a weird trend in the US, where iPhones dominate, to regard “green bubble” users as socially inferior or something of the sort.

My understanding is that there’s a weird trend in the US, where iPhones dominate, to regard “green bubble” users as socially inferior or something of the sort. Anyone who knows more about this please correct me. This is purely from reading Internet forums.

sevagh 3y ago
I used to believe this wouldn't happen to me (I use Android phones without much issue). Then, last week, I was added to a group text for some party planning, and the first few messages in the group chat were "who here has android", "who's the intruder", etc. Of course it was all jokey and no big deal but I still came away from that situation having learned that all this green bubble malarkey is very much real, and these were all grown adults (like, 30+ with children).
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  It kind of messes up the functionality. If you have all iMessage users, then you can do things like add more users to the chat, etc. As soon as one Android user is in the chat, then you can't do that. The other issue, for me, personally, is that I can respond to my iOS users from my desktop (where I spend most of my time), but I have to actually pick up the phone to communicate with my Android friends. It's not the end of the world, as my Apple Watch tells me when I get texts from my phone, but it is a bit annoying.
  - psobot 3y ago
    FWIW - you can enable Apple's built-in text message forwarding to proxy those SMSes via your iPhone to your Mac - it's pretty seamless. See: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/messages/icht8a28bb9a/mac https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/messages/icht8a28bb9a/...
  - dingnuts 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - matsemann 3y ago
    It's not an Android issue, though. It's Apple gatekeeping it. Like for instance if they allowed Android users to use this Beeper app, the experience would be good for all users. Apple degrade the user experience to spite their own customers. Quite bizarre.
    - bronson 3y ago
      They degrade the user experience to profit off their own customers. Same thing with soldering down storage on Macs. It's really effective.
    - riscy 3y ago
      Then Android users have to download a separate iMessage app for groups involving iPhone users, since they can’t use their default Messages app either and the cycle repeats. Why can’t everyone in these situations just ask everyone to use one app like WhatsApp? If having good experience was important everyone would be on board.
      - freedomben 3y ago
        This is exactly what would happen, if iphones weren't so dominant already. The problem is, many people will not add "a second messaging app" just for one "green bubble" (which as an aside, is a great way to de-humanize "the others", something we humans naturally do. Robert Sapolsky's book "Behave" is phenomenal if you're interested in that). They'll just cut that person out of the group chat. Also it's not a "good experience" for everyone, not as much as just cutting that green bubble loser out. With no green bubbles, you get to use the default messaging app. With a different app, since you can't change the default on iOS, you have to have at least two apps, and many people balk at that.
        riscy 3y ago
        I just want to know what Android friend groups are doing to talk to that one iPhone user? I get that iPhones are more popular in the US but in Europe where Android is dominant they (supposedly) all use WhatsApp, which is also not the default messaging app. Are Americans just too lazy to download another app?
  - k8svet 3y ago
    Funny, I don't have that problem with Facebook Messenger, Instagram Chat, WhatsApp, Matrix, etc. I hope Apple can hire some smart folks to help them with these totally-not-self-imposed challenges!
  - KolmogorovComp 3y ago
    You can enable text message forwarding on your ipad/mac. On your iphone, in settings go to messages > text message forwarding and select the devices you want to allow.
    - bronson 3y ago
      I've enabled it, both iPad and Mac, and found it only works maybe 80% of the time. When it fails, Messages shows the message successfully sent, but the recipient never gets it. It fails often enough that I can't rely on it.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - bronson 3y ago
    This is exactly right. Green bubble chats require more effort and are less fun. You can't leave a green bubble chat. You can't send messages from your computer or non-iPhone devices (Apple has message forwarding, but it's unreliable). Pictures look awful, videos look worse. Read receipts don't work. Tapbacks/emoji/stickers/memoji/etc don't work. It's a drag to remember all these limitations. I grudgingly got an iphone in 2019 for work. I no longer work there but now I'm locked into blue bubble chats with family. I've been trying to use Beeper to solve this it's not reliable enough yet. (if RCS wasn't such a dog's breakfast, I might make more of an effort. Even when Messages supports RCS, the experience will still suck)
    - worble 3y ago
      Why not just use whatsapp?
      - ethanbond 3y ago
        No reason not to except it's just not very big in the US.
      - stackskipton 3y ago
        Because in US, it's just not a common application everyone has so you get a ton of "I don't have whatsapp, just text me!" from friends.
        standardUser 3y ago
        I've gotten almost everyone I know to use WhatsApp. Not switch necessarily, but use. There's only a few stragglers left. It's not a hard sell, at least in a big city where you're bound to know a lot of foreigners or people with foreign friends/family, so adoption starts well above zero.
      - Analemma_ 3y ago
        The other replies already brought up that WhatsApp is not common in the US, but I'll also add that if your beef with iMessage is the evil corporate overlord, moving to WhatsApp kinda seems like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
  - ryandvm 3y ago
    What's funny is the Stockholm syndrome aspect of this behavior. "Oh no, our chat is acting weird because there is an Android user in here." It's like hostages complaining that somebody left the door open and is letting in cold air.
  - standardUser 3y ago
    This is why most of the world prefers WhatsApp or Telegram. It can do all of what iMessage does, and a lot more, without forcing you to give one shit about what hardware another person decides to use.
- nerdix 3y ago
  And next time they'll just exclude you from the group chat altogether.
Nav_Panel 3y ago
It's real. I remember bracing myself every time I got someone's number off a dating app for the inevitable comment about my "green bubble". These are people in their 20s in NYC. And (for most people), a rant about ecosystem lock-in and being able to do what I want with my hardware etc wouldn't exactly make me come off as more attractive...
- barbs 3y ago
  Not to invalidate your frustration, but if someone rejected me based on the colour of my chat bubble in a messaging app, that would be decisively unattractive to me.
  - Nav_Panel 3y ago
    I have the confidence to feel that now, but dating apps imbue a sense of helplessness in users like my past self, who would get maybe 10-20 matches total, ever, most of whom wouldn't even reply. So perhaps my experience speaks more to the psychological game of dating apps than anything about bubbles and phones. And, to be fair, they didn't reject me per se, they would make slightly judgmental comments or observations. It just felt like it knocked me down a peg in their eyes and made it all the more difficult to make a real connection.

sevagh 3y ago

I used to believe this wouldn't happen to me (I use Android phones without much issue). Then, last week, I was added to a group text for some party planning, and the first few messages in the group chat were "who here has android", "who's the intruder", etc. Of course it was all jokey and no big deal but I still came away from that situation having learned that all this green bubble malarkey is very much real, and these were all grown adults (like, 30+ with children).

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
It kind of messes up the functionality. If you have all iMessage users, then you can do things like add more users to the chat, etc. As soon as one Android user is in the chat, then you can't do that. The other issue, for me, personally, is that I can respond to my iOS users from my desktop (where I spend most of my time), but I have to actually pick up the phone to communicate with my Android friends. It's not the end of the world, as my Apple Watch tells me when I get texts from my phone, but it is a bit annoying.
- psobot 3y ago
  FWIW - you can enable Apple's built-in text message forwarding to proxy those SMSes via your iPhone to your Mac - it's pretty seamless. See: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/messages/icht8a28bb9a/mac https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/messages/icht8a28bb9a/...
- dingnuts 3y ago
  [flagged]
- matsemann 3y ago
  It's not an Android issue, though. It's Apple gatekeeping it. Like for instance if they allowed Android users to use this Beeper app, the experience would be good for all users. Apple degrade the user experience to spite their own customers. Quite bizarre.
  - bronson 3y ago
    They degrade the user experience to profit off their own customers. Same thing with soldering down storage on Macs. It's really effective.
  - riscy 3y ago
    Then Android users have to download a separate iMessage app for groups involving iPhone users, since they can’t use their default Messages app either and the cycle repeats. Why can’t everyone in these situations just ask everyone to use one app like WhatsApp? If having good experience was important everyone would be on board.
    - freedomben 3y ago
      This is exactly what would happen, if iphones weren't so dominant already. The problem is, many people will not add "a second messaging app" just for one "green bubble" (which as an aside, is a great way to de-humanize "the others", something we humans naturally do. Robert Sapolsky's book "Behave" is phenomenal if you're interested in that). They'll just cut that person out of the group chat. Also it's not a "good experience" for everyone, not as much as just cutting that green bubble loser out. With no green bubbles, you get to use the default messaging app. With a different app, since you can't change the default on iOS, you have to have at least two apps, and many people balk at that.
      - riscy 3y ago
        I just want to know what Android friend groups are doing to talk to that one iPhone user? I get that iPhones are more popular in the US but in Europe where Android is dominant they (supposedly) all use WhatsApp, which is also not the default messaging app. Are Americans just too lazy to download another app?
- k8svet 3y ago
  Funny, I don't have that problem with Facebook Messenger, Instagram Chat, WhatsApp, Matrix, etc. I hope Apple can hire some smart folks to help them with these totally-not-self-imposed challenges!
- KolmogorovComp 3y ago
  You can enable text message forwarding on your ipad/mac. On your iphone, in settings go to messages > text message forwarding and select the devices you want to allow.
  - bronson 3y ago
    I've enabled it, both iPad and Mac, and found it only works maybe 80% of the time. When it fails, Messages shows the message successfully sent, but the recipient never gets it. It fails often enough that I can't rely on it.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- bronson 3y ago
  This is exactly right. Green bubble chats require more effort and are less fun. You can't leave a green bubble chat. You can't send messages from your computer or non-iPhone devices (Apple has message forwarding, but it's unreliable). Pictures look awful, videos look worse. Read receipts don't work. Tapbacks/emoji/stickers/memoji/etc don't work. It's a drag to remember all these limitations. I grudgingly got an iphone in 2019 for work. I no longer work there but now I'm locked into blue bubble chats with family. I've been trying to use Beeper to solve this it's not reliable enough yet. (if RCS wasn't such a dog's breakfast, I might make more of an effort. Even when Messages supports RCS, the experience will still suck)
  - worble 3y ago
    Why not just use whatsapp?
    - ethanbond 3y ago
      No reason not to except it's just not very big in the US.
    - stackskipton 3y ago
      Because in US, it's just not a common application everyone has so you get a ton of "I don't have whatsapp, just text me!" from friends.
      - standardUser 3y ago
        I've gotten almost everyone I know to use WhatsApp. Not switch necessarily, but use. There's only a few stragglers left. It's not a hard sell, at least in a big city where you're bound to know a lot of foreigners or people with foreign friends/family, so adoption starts well above zero.
    - Analemma_ 3y ago
      The other replies already brought up that WhatsApp is not common in the US, but I'll also add that if your beef with iMessage is the evil corporate overlord, moving to WhatsApp kinda seems like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
- ryandvm 3y ago
  What's funny is the Stockholm syndrome aspect of this behavior. "Oh no, our chat is acting weird because there is an Android user in here." It's like hostages complaining that somebody left the door open and is letting in cold air.
- standardUser 3y ago
  This is why most of the world prefers WhatsApp or Telegram. It can do all of what iMessage does, and a lot more, without forcing you to give one shit about what hardware another person decides to use.
nerdix 3y ago
And next time they'll just exclude you from the group chat altogether.

Nav_Panel 3y ago

It's real. I remember bracing myself every time I got someone's number off a dating app for the inevitable comment about my "green bubble". These are people in their 20s in NYC. And (for most people), a rant about ecosystem lock-in and being able to do what I want with my hardware etc wouldn't exactly make me come off as more attractive...

barbs 3y ago
Not to invalidate your frustration, but if someone rejected me based on the colour of my chat bubble in a messaging app, that would be decisively unattractive to me.
- Nav_Panel 3y ago
  I have the confidence to feel that now, but dating apps imbue a sense of helplessness in users like my past self, who would get maybe 10-20 matches total, ever, most of whom wouldn't even reply. So perhaps my experience speaks more to the psychological game of dating apps than anything about bubbles and phones. And, to be fair, they didn't reject me per se, they would make slightly judgmental comments or observations. It just felt like it knocked me down a peg in their eyes and made it all the more difficult to make a real connection.