The Green Bubble Drama is dumb . Granted , like so many other stupid polish wars , it ’s a in spades American thing ( that bleeds into a few other markets ) . In most of the world , the first matter everyone does with an iPhone or Android telephone is downloadWhatsApp , which is creeping up onthree billionusers .
But in the incredibly valuable U.S. market , which lean heavily toward “ premium ” smartphones and their highly monetizable users , everyone just “ texts . ” Maybe that ’s a byproduct of most smartphone gross sales here being made with big ignition lock - in mail carrier deals , possibly we ’re just too indolent to use anything other than the default app that comes with our phones .
Or it could just be because iMessage is so great . Back in 2011 , it solved the biggest job with texting : terrible file limits that make for bad - quality photos and video , text demarcation line , no read receipts or typing indicator , and no security at all . good of all , it was a bead - in , “ choiceless ” alternate for SMS . If you ’re on an iPhone , you just “ schoolbook ” someone and if they ’re on an iPhone , it ’s an iMessage . If not , it ’s SMS .
The Green Bubble saga isn’t ending anytime soon.
That lack of choice , that ability for Apple to make a default that take over the open criterion mechanically without any additional app download , history , or even a scene to enable , is plausibly why the company is find iMessage at the heart of a lot of current legal and regulative manus - wringing about “ gatekeeping ” and “ interoperability . ”
Second-class citizens
While Android earpiece are in the Brobdingnagian majority worldwide , iPhones make up alarge majorityof adolescent ’ first phones here in the U.S.Teenagers . Social pressuremachines . So much so that it ’s an entire moving picture music genre . And when a adolescent in the majority with an iPhone sends a school text to someone with an Android phone , they do n’t get the prissy attractive gamy - direct contrast blue bubble , they get an icky lower - dividing line fleeceable house of cards ( seriously Apple , darken the green a fiddling ) .
The Green Bubble saga is n’t ending anytime before long .
Michael Simon / IDG
The Green Bubble saga isn’t ending anytime soon.
And they know that intend the other individual is an OUTSIDER . The tapbacks and reactions wo n’t work . The images will count defective . This Android person , thisgreen bubble , is messing upmytexting experience ! And just one of them poison the entire grouping chat !
It make sentiency for Apple to visually denote the difference between iMessage and SMS . You should acknowledge , immediately , whether your messages are ending - to - ending cypher or overt for anyone to consider ( and in all likelihood logged by your carrier ) . You should acknowledge if the image you send is going to expect full . You should know if you should even bother trying to post that video or not .
But Apple ’s desire to make Android users into second - grade citizens here , to make iPhone users exert societal pressure on their peer , has been an extremely customer - unfriendly move . Yes , it has been efficient at pushing teenager to favor iPhones . But we should be clear : If you are an iPhone user , Apple ’s refusal to either adopt a good texting standard ( RCS ) or make iMessage for Android has harmed you , not the Android exploiter . Apple made iPhone user ’ texting experience worse to betray more iPhones .
Android messages will still be green when Apple switches to RCS.
The green bubbles aren’t going away
So Apple , after vocally play off any sorting of answer that would improve the ability of its own user to message 70 percent of the existence ’s smartphones without deplume their whisker out , has finally relented and announcedRCS support is add up to iPhone . It ’s a great thing for both iPhone and Android users . And , with a release engagement of “ later on next twelvemonth , ” it ’s about five years subsequently than it should be . The GSM Association officially take on the RCS Universal Profile back in 2016 !
Is this an destruction to the Green Bubble Drama ? Not if Apple can serve it .
Android subject matter will still be green when Apple switches to RCS .
metalworks
The companyconfirmed to 9to5Macthat iMessages will continue to be disconsolate , and not - iMessages will continue to be unripened , whether they ’re SMS or RCS . This does make a certain amount of sense . Again , substance abuser should know whether their messages are end - to - closing encrypted , and RCS messages currently are not . ( Google has built its own extension service to E2E encrypt RCS in its own app , but it ’s not part of the standard . Apple enjoin it will work with the GSMA to adopt a standardized solution . ) And you ca n’t blue-pencil or delete RCS messages like you’re able to with iMessages . Other iMessage features like sticker wo n’t work on RCS , and you could be trusted that Io 18 next twelvemonth will add more iMessage feature of speech to make it expert than RCS .
But do they need to keep the green / blueish water parting ? Once a individual “ green bubble ” in the chemical group confabulation drug user no longer keep everyone else from fetch decent images , understand reception , or typing indicators , is n’t it honest to take them out of Green Bubble Jail and utilize a less - dramatic index ? Apple is plain not concerned in acquire Android users out of Green Bubble Jail , only in take the jail conditions a little nicer .
We ’ll take what we can get . But whether it ’s the iPhone moving to USB - vitamin C or Messages adopting RCS , I ca n’t help but find that Apple only does the clearly right thing years after it should , and under protest . It ’s frustrating when technology standards are adopted that are better than Apple ’s answer and Apple reject to support it for maintain its ill-famed “ walled garden . ”
