Google uses Drake's 'Texts Go Green' track to troll Apple

AppleInsider · June 20, 2022 9:55AM

Again presenting RCS as the solution to getting Apple Messages and Android text users feature parity, Google has tweeted an "unofficial lyric explainer" about Drake's "Texts Go Green" song.

The Rich Communications Service (RCS) has taken a long time to be available to all Android users. And Google's own rivals failed, but it continues to champion RCS -- and criticize Apple for ignoring it.

Having previously offered to help out Apple's engineers in implementing RCS, the company has now tweeted a short video set to Drake's music.

#TextsGoGreen hit us different, that's why we had to drop this unofficial lyric explainer video #GetTheMessage pic.twitter.com/dPxt9yZjCG
-- Android (@Android)
June 18, 2022

It's not exactly high on production values. Over what appears to be a loop of the start of Drake's track, a series of captions explain what it means when "Texts Go Green."

Text messages are most commonly shown in green on an iPhone when they are actual text messages, as in SMS or MMS, rather than Messages. But they can also appear green on an iPhone if that phone's number has been blocked, hence going green.

"If only some super-talented engineering team at Apple would fix this," says the tweeted video.

The tweet was first spotted by Android Police. The site notes that the Drake album with the track achieved a record number of first-day streams for a dance album on Apple Music.

Read on AppleInsider

vztrv1 · June 20, 2022 11:57AM

I can’t help but wonder if Alphabet properly compensated Drake….

sdw2001 · June 20, 2022 12:30PM

Dumb. Texting works fine between iPhone and Android. In my circles, few people have Android. It doesn’t matter much either way.

docbburk · June 20, 2022 12:34PM

Google is such a joke! Let's poke fun at the competitor for having had superior product for a long time, and try to get congress to force them to use our crap! Trolls gonna troll

Japhey · June 20, 2022 1:48PM

Who cares? Why are they so fucking obsessed with this colors issue? They probably have an entire team assigned to it. Aren’t there more important things to fix in the world? Get a life, ffs.

hammeroftruth · June 20, 2022 1:53PM

Japhey said:

Who cares? Why are they so fucking obsessed with this colors issue? They probably have an entire team assigned to it. Aren’t there more important things to fix in the world? Get a life, ffs.

They have to blow their money on something. I guess green is the color of hill they die on.

Beats · June 20, 2022 3:59PM

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

gatorguy · June 20, 2022 5:46PM

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

auxio · June 20, 2022 6:50PM

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

No need to be obtuse, we all understand the business models of each company: Google uses technology as a vehicle to fuel their main business (advertising), Apple sells technology as their main product.

Google sells themselves as "free and open" to those naïve enough in the tech industry to believe that they're altruistic, when in reality any technology they come across which requires licensing, they'll clone and own it (i.e. make/buy their own copy which is just different enough to not be sued) and release it for free, undercutting the original company who made it. It happened with Sun/Oracle (Java), font foundries (free metric compatible clones of major fonts), MPEG-LA (VP8), and more.

Tech companies who love to get everything for free will cheer Google's openness right up until the point where whatever technology they create is undercut by them. Though most companies have just come to the realization by now that they need to be in the data harvesting/advertising business too since there's no way to compete with free. The devaluation of software as a product.

But yes, let's keep the narrative going and hope that Apple one day is forced to give their technology away for free and become yet another data harvesting/advertising company.

baconstang · June 20, 2022 7:25PM

I like the fact messages turn green when going to Android.
Then I know not to bother trying to send txts with a photo.

Beats · June 20, 2022 7:48PM

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

I thought the point of Google telling Apple what to do is to snoop through iPhone user’s data.

auxio said:

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

No need to be obtuse, we all understand the business models of each company: Google uses technology as a vehicle to fuel their main business (advertising), Apple sells technology as their main product.

Google sells themselves as "free and open" to those naïve enough in the tech industry to believe that they're altruistic, when in reality any technology they come across which requires licensing, they'll clone and own it (i.e. make/buy their own copy which is just different enough to not be sued) and release it for free, undercutting the original company who made it. It happened with Sun/Oracle (Java), font foundries (free metric compatible clones of major fonts), MPEG-LA (VP8), and more.

Tech companies who love to get everything for free will cheer Google's openness right up until the point where whatever technology they create is undercut by them. Though most companies have just come to the realization by now that they need to be in the data harvesting/advertising business too since there's no way to compete with free. The devaluation of software as a product.

But yes, let's keep the narrative going and hope that Apple one day is forced to give their technology away for free and become yet another data harvesting/advertising company.

Don’t forget Google releases knockoff Apple products too and spreads the spyware for free to undercut Apple. I think Google is fuming that Apple sells hardware at a premium and has 20%+ world market share with their authentic products while their iKnockoffs can’t be cheap enough to beat Apple.

auxio · June 20, 2022 8:23PM

Beats said:

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

I thought the point of Google telling Apple what to do is to snoop through iPhone user’s data.

auxio said:

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

No need to be obtuse, we all understand the business models of each company: Google uses technology as a vehicle to fuel their main business (advertising), Apple sells technology as their main product.

Google sells themselves as "free and open" to those naïve enough in the tech industry to believe that they're altruistic, when in reality any technology they come across which requires licensing, they'll clone and own it (i.e. make/buy their own copy which is just different enough to not be sued) and release it for free, undercutting the original company who made it. It happened with Sun/Oracle (Java), font foundries (free metric compatible clones of major fonts), MPEG-LA (VP8), and more.

Tech companies who love to get everything for free will cheer Google's openness right up until the point where whatever technology they create is undercut by them. Though most companies have just come to the realization by now that they need to be in the data harvesting/advertising business too since there's no way to compete with free. The devaluation of software as a product.

But yes, let's keep the narrative going and hope that Apple one day is forced to give their technology away for free and become yet another data harvesting/advertising company.

Don’t forget Google releases knockoff Apple products too and spreads the spyware for free to undercut Apple. I think Google is fuming that Apple sells hardware at a premium and has 20%+ world market share with their authentic products while their iKnockoffs can’t be cheap enough to beat Apple.

Google's advertising business is far far larger than their hardware business, so they only care insofar as there are enough devices running Android and/or Chrome out there to continue to provide them with enough data. Given that all of the Android devices put together have a larger marketshare than Apple, they're sitting pretty comfortably in that.

red oak · June 20, 2022 9:05PM

Google attempting to school Apple on messaging is rich

appleinsideruser · June 20, 2022 9:31PM

So how does the going green when blocked thing work? Is it, iMessage is undelivered (sender blocked by recipient), so the originator’s phone sends as SMS which is also blocked by the recipient?

rapcatmeow · June 20, 2022 9:55PM

I feel like the song is more a burn on Android than Apple 🤷🏽‍♂️

Beats · June 21, 2022 12:21AM

rapcatmeow said:

I feel like the song is more a burn on Android than Apple 🤷🏽‍♂️

Haven’t heard it but I knew that was the case. Rappers always burn android.

gatorguy · June 21, 2022 2:12AM

auxio said:

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

No need to be obtuse, we all understand the business models of each company: Google uses technology as a vehicle to fuel their main business (advertising), Apple sells technology as their main product.

Google sells themselves as "free and open" to those naïve enough in the tech industry to believe that they're altruistic, when in reality any technology they come across which requires licensing, they'll clone and own it (i.e. make/buy their own copy which is just different enough to not be sued) and release it for free, undercutting the original company who made it. It happened with Sun/Oracle (Java), font foundries (free metric compatible clones of major fonts), MPEG-LA (VP8), and more.

Tech companies who love to get everything for free will cheer Google's openness right up until the point where whatever technology they create is undercut by them. Though most companies have just come to the realization by now that they need to be in the data harvesting/advertising business too since there's no way to compete with free. The devaluation of software as a product.

But yes, let's keep the narrative going and hope that Apple one day is forced to give their technology away for free and become yet another data harvesting/advertising company.

That's all nice but has nothing to do with anything I said.

You completely avoid any point I actually made, especially regarding the security and privacy improvements you and I as iPhone users would have when our messages must be sent relayed as SMS instead of the secure E2EE RCS. Why, just to benefit Apple by withholding the benefit to Apple users? Well who doesn't want big company to get richer at the expense of us commoners, eh? Duopoly works.

Anilu_777 · June 21, 2022 5:35AM

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Oh, no doubt in my mind that Google hasn't always been 100% upfront (aka dishonest) in some past instances. Every big company "fluffs" the facts IMO.
But they aren't lying about RCS being way more secure than SMS.

That Apple chooses not to replace SMS in iMessage plainly indicates it's only refusing for competition reasons, which ignores the security benefits of using RCS instead. Apple users would benefit. Apple themselves perhaps not.

RCS is more secure than SMS…until Google cans it just like it’s done Allo and so many of its apps. Why should Apple even bother making iMessage compatible with RCS when Google is likely to abandon it anyway.

Darth_KalEL · June 23, 2022 2:42PM

docbburk said:

Google is such a joke! Let's poke fun at the competitor for having had superior product for a long time, and try to get congress to force them to use our crap! Trolls gonna troll

RCS is not Google's "crap" RCS is a s standard developed by the 3GPP and the OMA. The first specification for the standard was released by them in 2008 as the next generation of text messaging service as a replacement for SMS and MMS. It was developed the same way they developed the standard for 3G and 4G. Educate yourself. But you won't and you are too much of a coward to respond.

Darth_KalEL · June 23, 2022 2:43PM

sdw2001 said:

Dumb. Texting works fine between iPhone and Android. In my circles, few people have Android. It doesn’t matter much either way.

You do realise RCS was developed by the 3GPP as the replacement for SMS right? Or are you too dumb to realise that

Darth_KalEL · June 23, 2022 2:45PM

Beats said:

“It would make texting more secure too”???

What a sick company. Apple should sue them for lying and make a big media circus about it.

Do you think RCS is something Google came up with? It's not. The 3GPP and the OMA developed it in the mid 2000s and released the first standard spec in 2008 with the goal of it replacing SMS. RCS is was designed by them to be more secure.

Google uses Drake's 'Texts Go Green' track to troll Apple

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