4 ms·

It's not about the button color, other than the fact that a green bubble means your group message is degraded and a bunch of expected functionality stops existi

It's not about the button color, other than the fact that a green bubble means your group message is degraded and a bunch of expected functionality stops existing. It's hard not to feel some annoyance if someone is added to a group and that causes the experience to be degraded for everyone else. I use Whatsapp for all my European friends, but getting Americans to adopt a different messaging platform is as unlikely as getting the Dutch to start using iMessage... So we're left with this situation, and it will continue until Apple/Google adopt RCS and cross-platform messaging becomes as seamless an experience as iMessage.

FridgeSeal 3y ago
> that a green bubble means your group message is degraded and a bunch of expected functionality stops existing …because the functionality is a paid product feature that exists on their hardware and software? Because it’s a…product feature??
- sanex 3y ago
  But they purposely make the green bubble messages worse than they need to be. Videos get sent with a lower than necessary resolution.
  - FridgeSeal 3y ago
    Even when I used Android phones this would happen if you were misguided enough to send something over MMS lol. MMS was dated when I had a Motorola flip phone in high school, I’m not surprised it doesn’t handle 4K video lol.
    - sanex 3y ago
      I don't expect 4k but I would expect that when my wife sends a video green with mms and then used Whatsapp to share it with me and I use my android to send the same video to the same group they should be the same resolution but mine is _higher_ even though she took the video.
  - averageRoyalty 3y ago
    That's not accurate. The "green bubble" is SMS/MMS. They operate on a standard protocol of decades as a fallback, which absolutely has lower quality. You can blame your carrier for that. It wasn't that long ago that MMS too large simply failed, or lived in limbo. I'm not a big fan of low res either, but it's absolutely an improvement and beyond what they need to do.
  - Grustaf 3y ago
    That is simply objectively false. They can’t make the experience any better than it is. In a mixed group, they have to resort to the greatest common denominator which is SMS/MSM. They literally can’t do anything else.
    - unstatusthequo 3y ago
      Thank you for bringing this up again. The green bubblers who hitch about this fail to understand the difference between SMS, MMS, and better alternative. SMS and MMS are legacy “compatibility modes” in effect. Apple users happily enter the ecosystem to get away from legacy native messaging with SMS and MMS. It’s not the iPhone that “downgrades” anything, is that the default IS SHITTY, and iPhone upgrades the experience with a better protocol for Apple users. Don’t like your sadness with Android messaging? Switch. Frankly Apple should change the green bubble to brown, like crap, to really remind us of that legacy protocol use.
Grustaf 3y ago
So Americans hate the iMessage experience, but for some reason they refuse to use any of the numerous free alternatives? And that is Apple’s fault.
- dqv 3y ago
  >Americans hate the iMessage experience No. They love the iMessage experience and iMessage inertia means that people without iPhones have to negotiate to get people to use something else. It's not even necessarily malicious or obvious, but it does happen. I was a little hurt when I realized I had been left out of certain group communications that were happening over iMessage when I didn't have an iPhone. >but for some reason they refuse to use any of the numerous free alternatives? I guess you could say that, but it's more that the inertia pulls them back to iMessage. I'd try to get people to use Signal/Telegram/Whatsapp/Messenger and at some point, they'd stop checking those apps and I'd have to send them a regular SMS. I was the only person they were checking the app for, so any lapse in our communication could result in forgetting to check the app (and even having it get automatically offloaded). It's also kind of like being the only vegan in a group of meat eaters. They just get invited to less dinner parties when people don't want to go somewhere that accommodates the vegan's diet. That creates a social rift even if it's not obvious.
  - xg15 3y ago
    > I'd try to get people to use Signal/Telegram/Whatsapp/Messenger and at some point, they'd stop checking those apps and I'd have to send them a regular SMS. Android guy here, so I may be out of the loop, but why do they have to check the apps at all? Shouldn't incoming messages from any app be shown as a push notification?
    - dqv 3y ago
      Push notification bankruptcy. I don't think a lot of people make checking every single app they have installed for the number a habit. I guess I could have policed them on where they put the app so it would be on page 1 or whatever it's called. But that Messages app? It's always going to be noticed since it's in the dock on every page.

FridgeSeal 3y ago

> that a green bubble means your group message is degraded and a bunch of expected functionality stops existing …because the functionality is a paid product feature that exists on their hardware and software? Because it’s a…product feature??

sanex 3y ago
But they purposely make the green bubble messages worse than they need to be. Videos get sent with a lower than necessary resolution.
- FridgeSeal 3y ago
  Even when I used Android phones this would happen if you were misguided enough to send something over MMS lol. MMS was dated when I had a Motorola flip phone in high school, I’m not surprised it doesn’t handle 4K video lol.
  - sanex 3y ago
    I don't expect 4k but I would expect that when my wife sends a video green with mms and then used Whatsapp to share it with me and I use my android to send the same video to the same group they should be the same resolution but mine is _higher_ even though she took the video.
- averageRoyalty 3y ago
  That's not accurate. The "green bubble" is SMS/MMS. They operate on a standard protocol of decades as a fallback, which absolutely has lower quality. You can blame your carrier for that. It wasn't that long ago that MMS too large simply failed, or lived in limbo. I'm not a big fan of low res either, but it's absolutely an improvement and beyond what they need to do.
- Grustaf 3y ago
  That is simply objectively false. They can’t make the experience any better than it is. In a mixed group, they have to resort to the greatest common denominator which is SMS/MSM. They literally can’t do anything else.
  - unstatusthequo 3y ago
    Thank you for bringing this up again. The green bubblers who hitch about this fail to understand the difference between SMS, MMS, and better alternative. SMS and MMS are legacy “compatibility modes” in effect. Apple users happily enter the ecosystem to get away from legacy native messaging with SMS and MMS. It’s not the iPhone that “downgrades” anything, is that the default IS SHITTY, and iPhone upgrades the experience with a better protocol for Apple users. Don’t like your sadness with Android messaging? Switch. Frankly Apple should change the green bubble to brown, like crap, to really remind us of that legacy protocol use.

Grustaf 3y ago

So Americans hate the iMessage experience, but for some reason they refuse to use any of the numerous free alternatives? And that is Apple’s fault.

dqv 3y ago
>Americans hate the iMessage experience No. They love the iMessage experience and iMessage inertia means that people without iPhones have to negotiate to get people to use something else. It's not even necessarily malicious or obvious, but it does happen. I was a little hurt when I realized I had been left out of certain group communications that were happening over iMessage when I didn't have an iPhone. >but for some reason they refuse to use any of the numerous free alternatives? I guess you could say that, but it's more that the inertia pulls them back to iMessage. I'd try to get people to use Signal/Telegram/Whatsapp/Messenger and at some point, they'd stop checking those apps and I'd have to send them a regular SMS. I was the only person they were checking the app for, so any lapse in our communication could result in forgetting to check the app (and even having it get automatically offloaded). It's also kind of like being the only vegan in a group of meat eaters. They just get invited to less dinner parties when people don't want to go somewhere that accommodates the vegan's diet. That creates a social rift even if it's not obvious.
- xg15 3y ago
  > I'd try to get people to use Signal/Telegram/Whatsapp/Messenger and at some point, they'd stop checking those apps and I'd have to send them a regular SMS. Android guy here, so I may be out of the loop, but why do they have to check the apps at all? Shouldn't incoming messages from any app be shown as a push notification?
  - dqv 3y ago
    Push notification bankruptcy. I don't think a lot of people make checking every single app they have installed for the number a habit. I guess I could have policed them on where they put the app so it would be on page 1 or whatever it's called. But that Messages app? It's always going to be noticed since it's in the dock on every page.