4 ms·

I might be the only one, but I think I would feel slightly uncomfortable having the blue bubble. (that's the apple one, right?) Like maybe not enough to stop m

I might be the only one, but I think I would feel slightly uncomfortable having the blue bubble. (that's the apple one, right?) Like maybe not enough to stop me from getting an iphone if I wanted one otherwise. But it's such a visible signifier of being in an in-group. It somehow feels like a tacit approval of social shame strategy. Like even if I had an iphone, I feel like I would want to opt-out of the good color in solidarity with the have-nots or something. I have no interest in iphones, and also don't really participate in any group texts, so it's double academic for me though.

yieldcrv 2y ago
> But it's such a visible signifier of being in an in-group. It also works really well and is a lot of fun for interacting. Many people aren't just using "text", its quite rich forms of interacting. Enough people have grown up with that now to not care about the more rudimentary way form of communication you associate with "texting". It also signifies that there are even MORE ways you can communicate, with the integrated location sharing when desired, video chat, video voicemails, and more. (I'm sure android users have the possibility of all these things, but not as deeply integrated or without any other app.) > and also don't really participate in any group texts shocked /s
- drcongo 2y ago
  Google Messages actually lets you use green bubbles too.
- lxgr 2y ago
  It's almost exactly as fun as WhatsApp, except that that's available on Android as well. Which arguably makes it more than twice as fun (based on the number of people you can reach with it globally) :) So literally every non-US phone user just installs it as the first app whenever they get a new phone and that's that. Having grown up on XMPP, I don't love that it's not federated, but at least it's available to everybody, and reasonably secure at that.
  - vundercind 2y ago
    I mostly message over WhatsApp but iMessage has a lot more features, and especially fun (e.g. multiplayer games directly in the messaging program) and useful (e.g. very slick location sharing) ones.
    - lxgr 2y ago
      I use both, and I find WhatsApp much more fun, so maybe this is just a matter of habit/convenience. iMessage is regularly glitching out for me, doesn't work in the browser, has a more confusing sent/received/read indicator system than WhatsApp in group chats (not that I particularly care about the "read" part, but knowing who actually had signal and received the message is useful when traveling internationally), and most importantly isn't available with all of my contacts. WhatsApp location sharing works just as well in my experience.
  - yieldcrv 2y ago
    You’re right, they all do the same things in some way. I’m in America communicating with Americans Apple, Google and ironically European regulators felt this is a big enough audience to cater to
    - lxgr 2y ago
      What are you referring to with European regulators? They're forcing WhatsApp to provide interoperability, but not iMessage, nor are they forcing Apple to support RCS (since only relatively few people use iMessage in Europe, and absolutely nobody knows what RCS even is).
- recursive 2y ago
  > but not as deeply integrated or without any other app Deeply integrated? How about a button that just does that? My android messaging app (that came with the phone) has a video call button in it. It works. Is it an app? What app is it? I don't know. I never installed it. It's just called "Video Call". It seems that the main reason you can't video call or send emojis across Apple's garden wall is that Apple doesn't want you to. As you note, all the MORE ways you can communicate are things that I've done without an Apple product. I'm not sure what "without any other app" means. Other than what? Is Facetime a separate app from iMessage? Are those even the right names?
JohnFen 2y ago
I could not care less about the whole "green bubble/blue bubble" thing. That's for iPhone users to fret over. If someone thinks less of me or won't communicate with me because of something as meaningless as the color of my messages on their phone, then that person isn't worth my time to begin with.
- garblegarble 2y ago
  >If someone thinks less of me or won't communicate with me because of something as meaningless as the color of my messages on their phone, then that person isn't worth my time to begin with. It's not about the colour of the message, it's what it signifies: this is an insecure conversation that is not end-to-end encrypted. To me it signals "switch to whatsapp/signal" Today green means SMS, which also means that deliverability can be unreliable (in the past I've seen SMSes send and never arrive, arrive multiple times, or arrive hours late), and delivery notification is limited and unreliable. Same with tapbacks, and that voice/image/video involves MMS (which is bad, and in many countries carries per-message fees). P.S. the incoming message bubble is black-on-grey, the same as all incoming messages no matter the medium - it's unencrypted outgoing messages that get a green bubble
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    > It's not about the colour of the message, it's what it signifies Regardless, if people are ostracizing others because of it, those people aren't worth interacting with anyway.
vundercind 2y ago
Your own messages appear green to you if you’re messaging over sms. The only time they’re blue (your own messages) is if everyone on a chat is using iMessage, so you know you’re sending over a different protocol and a ton more features plus e2e encryption are available.
jandrewrogers 2y ago
The green bubble indicates that some features are disabled because another client doesn't support them. It isn't a social construct, it is a UI device to indicate something important to the user. This won't change with RCS either, since RCS does not support many features of iMessage, but at least RCS will be more reliable than SMS.
Ferret7446 2y ago
Are you a child? From what I've heard, this is an extremely effective marketing strategy among children; kids get bullied and ostracized if they don't have an iDevice (in the US). And if you captured the kids, that's the entire future market after a few generations.
- recursive 2y ago
  I am not. It's been a while since I was subject to peer pressure of that kind. That kind of makes me want to avoid it even more. I don't want to support that kind of thing. But then again, being old and lame, perhaps the opposite of what I do is the definition of cool. Hmm...

yieldcrv 2y ago

> But it's such a visible signifier of being in an in-group. It also works really well and is a lot of fun for interacting. Many people aren't just using "text", its quite rich forms of interacting. Enough people have grown up with that now to not care about the more rudimentary way form of communication you associate with "texting". It also signifies that there are even MORE ways you can communicate, with the integrated location sharing when desired, video chat, video voicemails, and more. (I'm sure android users have the possibility of all these things, but not as deeply integrated or without any other app.) > and also don't really participate in any group texts shocked /s

drcongo 2y ago
Google Messages actually lets you use green bubbles too.
lxgr 2y ago
It's almost exactly as fun as WhatsApp, except that that's available on Android as well. Which arguably makes it more than twice as fun (based on the number of people you can reach with it globally) :) So literally every non-US phone user just installs it as the first app whenever they get a new phone and that's that. Having grown up on XMPP, I don't love that it's not federated, but at least it's available to everybody, and reasonably secure at that.
- vundercind 2y ago
  I mostly message over WhatsApp but iMessage has a lot more features, and especially fun (e.g. multiplayer games directly in the messaging program) and useful (e.g. very slick location sharing) ones.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    I use both, and I find WhatsApp much more fun, so maybe this is just a matter of habit/convenience. iMessage is regularly glitching out for me, doesn't work in the browser, has a more confusing sent/received/read indicator system than WhatsApp in group chats (not that I particularly care about the "read" part, but knowing who actually had signal and received the message is useful when traveling internationally), and most importantly isn't available with all of my contacts. WhatsApp location sharing works just as well in my experience.
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  You’re right, they all do the same things in some way. I’m in America communicating with Americans Apple, Google and ironically European regulators felt this is a big enough audience to cater to
  - lxgr 2y ago
    What are you referring to with European regulators? They're forcing WhatsApp to provide interoperability, but not iMessage, nor are they forcing Apple to support RCS (since only relatively few people use iMessage in Europe, and absolutely nobody knows what RCS even is).
recursive 2y ago
> but not as deeply integrated or without any other app Deeply integrated? How about a button that just does that? My android messaging app (that came with the phone) has a video call button in it. It works. Is it an app? What app is it? I don't know. I never installed it. It's just called "Video Call". It seems that the main reason you can't video call or send emojis across Apple's garden wall is that Apple doesn't want you to. As you note, all the MORE ways you can communicate are things that I've done without an Apple product. I'm not sure what "without any other app" means. Other than what? Is Facetime a separate app from iMessage? Are those even the right names?

JohnFen 2y ago

I could not care less about the whole "green bubble/blue bubble" thing. That's for iPhone users to fret over. If someone thinks less of me or won't communicate with me because of something as meaningless as the color of my messages on their phone, then that person isn't worth my time to begin with.

garblegarble 2y ago
>If someone thinks less of me or won't communicate with me because of something as meaningless as the color of my messages on their phone, then that person isn't worth my time to begin with. It's not about the colour of the message, it's what it signifies: this is an insecure conversation that is not end-to-end encrypted. To me it signals "switch to whatsapp/signal" Today green means SMS, which also means that deliverability can be unreliable (in the past I've seen SMSes send and never arrive, arrive multiple times, or arrive hours late), and delivery notification is limited and unreliable. Same with tapbacks, and that voice/image/video involves MMS (which is bad, and in many countries carries per-message fees). P.S. the incoming message bubble is black-on-grey, the same as all incoming messages no matter the medium - it's unencrypted outgoing messages that get a green bubble
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > It's not about the colour of the message, it's what it signifies Regardless, if people are ostracizing others because of it, those people aren't worth interacting with anyway.

vundercind 2y ago

Your own messages appear green to you if you’re messaging over sms. The only time they’re blue (your own messages) is if everyone on a chat is using iMessage, so you know you’re sending over a different protocol and a ton more features plus e2e encryption are available.

jandrewrogers 2y ago

The green bubble indicates that some features are disabled because another client doesn't support them. It isn't a social construct, it is a UI device to indicate something important to the user. This won't change with RCS either, since RCS does not support many features of iMessage, but at least RCS will be more reliable than SMS.

Ferret7446 2y ago

Are you a child? From what I've heard, this is an extremely effective marketing strategy among children; kids get bullied and ostracized if they don't have an iDevice (in the US). And if you captured the kids, that's the entire future market after a few generations.

recursive 2y ago
I am not. It's been a while since I was subject to peer pressure of that kind. That kind of makes me want to avoid it even more. I don't want to support that kind of thing. But then again, being old and lame, perhaps the opposite of what I do is the definition of cool. Hmm...