If there is any issue about which I care less than what color someone's texts are, I can't think of it right now. A green text does tell me that I shouldn't expect the person with whom I'm messaging won't see certain things, so I can avoid using those features, but other than that, who gives a shjt?
As for "bullying" over green bubbles versus blue, I'm sorry, but I fail to see how Apple is to blame for the vile behavior of a user of a messaging app. Address the bullies.
Perhaps because what you would expect to be a private conversation may not be private after all due to Apple relying on SMS rather than fully-encrypted RCS when communicating cross-platform, or in any other rare situations where iMessage may fail even between two iPhone users. There is no downside to you having RCS as the backup messaging option instead of the old, insecure, and less private SMS.
I've never understood this argument: Yeah lets stick with SMS, a service from 1992 because RCS isn't perfect and has issues. Encryption on RCS an issue? well SMS is already completely unencrypted. If i'm gonna use an unencrypted messaging service i'd at least want to use one which can send images at a resolution higher then 1mp.
If Apple added RCS to iMessage and made it operate seamlessly with Android devices, then what would people need WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram for?
The primary reason messaging platforms like WhatsApp are popular is because they work on both iOS & Android.
Google wants their own “iMessage” and to dominate messaging on Android. If their users could chat with iMessage users and enjoy most of the benefits (read receipts, typing indicators, encryption, enhanced media) then why would an Android user bother with a 3rd party messaging App?
That’s what this is about. Google wants back in the game and they think Apple should help them. This is only about Google , not users.
So what I glean from all the single-posters, refutations, and articles is that there is no "industry standard" RCS, if there is a "standard" then it's google's and it must be run through google's servers, if I want e2ee if has to be through google's servers, e2ee is only for one-on-one conversations only, and the carriers have forked the hell out of RCS. So tell me, which part of this do I willingly want to be involved in?
Also, enough with the green chat bubble bullying thing; in the words of Richard Nixon's Head: "Put down your crack pipes and beer bongs and pay attention" to your kids.
Personally I am good with whatever can be done to make texting with a non iPhone user less of a shitty experience. Sending a video or anything animated is reduced to the lowest resolution humanly possible. When I send a link to You Tube or a website to a mixed conversation its just a dead grey link, rather than the nice looking thumbnail to alert the other party what I am sending them... web links,pics and GIFS work in the flow of a conversation and with a mixed, or single android conversation that isn't possible.
Claims of bullying are getting worrisome - in particular, youth cohorts are experiencing mass bullying over green bubbles. Apple is culpable. If they're not going to adopt RCS they need to at least make some changes to iMessage to stop children from having such a visceral thing to respond to.
Some people will find a way to bully no matter what, look! the neighbor across street has a better car/house/dog, they should hide it cause some other neighbors who have less will feel bad about it. No…..Apple should continue on as is.
Cyber bullying is much more pervasive in the age of smartphones and social media. Any technology that leans into it for the sake of platform adoption is pretty heinous. This is one of the reasons the EU is working towards legislation that may make this entire discussion moot.
Apple could do something as simple as using a more subtle visual indicator in iMessage than an entirely different bubble color. At this point they are complicit in an enormous amount of childhood trauma.
(FYI this is coming from someone who does use Apple products - they are far from the only company that isn't doing enough to address this problem, but this article came across my feed organically and I feel like a lot of people don't understand just how harmful/backwards iMessage is in its current form.)
The solution to this starts at home, with parenting. You can't blame the device manufacturer - blame the parents.
This is like someone complaining at the track meet that their generic shoes seem plain while their opponents Nike shoes are seen as better because they have a swoosh logo. So their answer is for Nike to remove the swoosh logo. Utterly ridiculous.
It is not unusual for schools to mandate a uniform or unbranded clothing precisely to prevent bullying and exclusionary cliques based on wealth.
And the pathetic iMessage still dont have automatic spam filter. I really wish I could install Google message on my iPhone. The most annoying, I kept receiving spam Imessage from random emails. I both have iphone and Android and nope, RCS is not half baked. I use both and rcs has more feature than iMessage imho. Imessage doesnt have enough user base, atleast, outside america.
All my friends, with a few exceptions, use iPhones so RCS is of no value to me. I like the colored bubbles telling me who is using what type of phone. It's petty, but also hard to not think those with green bubble are not the "cool kids".
The green bubbles also tell me when people who I know have an iPhone are off grid or in areas with poor service
When Apple launched iMessage they used blue to differentiate from all others. Those who got green bubbles?
- Users of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G. - Android. - BlackBerry.
- Windows Phone. - Palm. - Dumb phones/feature phones.
For Android users to imply it was done to alienate them alone is an impressive display of arrogance/self importance.
Blue bubble/green bubble and Red State/Blue State are equally silly. Any friend of mine knows I can afford to buy any smartphone I wish, and probably know I have phones on both platforms. If they get a green bubble it just means I'm on my Pixel at the moment. Later I might have my iPhone. Who cares?
But I do care about the level of security. I know that using Google RCS with my Pixel means there's no ghosted man-in-the-middle, or that anyone including Google can read my private messages, or that Google can offer up my backed-up messages in a readable format to any agency inquiry. They're E2EE even backed up in my cloud account. But if I'm messaging with an iPhone user my privacy and security is now exposed thanks to Apple's unencrypted message backups.
I don't see any logical reason I would want to use SMS whether on iPhone or Android.
Comments
The primary reason messaging platforms like WhatsApp are popular is because they work on both iOS & Android.
Google wants their own “iMessage” and to dominate messaging on Android. If their users could chat with iMessage users and enjoy most of the benefits (read receipts, typing indicators, encryption, enhanced media) then why would an Android user bother with a 3rd party messaging App?
That’s what this is about. Google wants back in the game and they think Apple should help them. This is only about Google , not users.
When Apple launched iMessage they used blue to differentiate from all others. Those who got green bubbles?
- Users of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G.
- Android.
- BlackBerry.
- Palm.
- Dumb phones/feature phones.
For Android users to imply it was done to alienate them alone is an impressive display of arrogance/self importance.
mandate a uniform or unbranded clothing precisely to prevent bullying and exclusionary cliques based on wealth.
But I do care about the level of security. I know that using Google RCS with my Pixel means there's no ghosted man-in-the-middle, or that anyone including Google can read my private messages, or that Google can offer up my backed-up messages in a readable format to any agency inquiry. They're E2EE even backed up in my cloud account. But if I'm messaging with an iPhone user my privacy and security is now exposed thanks to Apple's unencrypted message backups.
I don't see any logical reason I would want to use SMS whether on iPhone or Android.