This may seem strange to people not involved in the debate, but some people really care about the color of their chat bubbles. Maybe you haven't thought about it yet. You may own an iPhone and notice that the person you're texting occasionally appears with green bubbles instead of blue bubbles. However, if you have an Android device, chances are you have at least one person in your life who has complained about texting you .
While it's true that some people only care about the aesthetics of their text messages, that's not really "green versus blue." Rather, it's about the negative iOS messaging experience faced by those green bubble users (that is, anyone with an Android device).
When iPhone to iPhone text messages, they use iMessage, which offers modern chat features like a typing indicator (a three-dot bubble that appears when someone is composing a message), high-quality photos and videos, location sharing, and a functioning group chat. However, when iPhones send messages to Android devices, they use SMS, an outdated messaging protocol that's been around since at least 1995. In addition to the bubble color changing, the quality of photos and videos drops drastically, group chats go crazy, and, worst of all, there's no end-to-end encryption, so security is less.
Of course, this is not the fault of Android users, nor the fault of the Android operating system. As much as I love Apple's ecosystem, this is entirely Apple's responsibility: Apple could simply adopt RCS, a more modern messaging protocol that includes many of the features iPhone users have, instead of forcing it on us on Android devices Use SMS. Looking forward to the arrival of iMessage. Android devices using RCS already have access to high-quality media, functional group chat, and end-to-end encryption. Why can't the iPhone? Because Apple doesn't want them to.
Apple could also allow users to change the default messaging app to something like WhatsApp or Telegram, but that setting isn't currently available on iOS. Not only would this create competition for iMessage, but Apple would also need to allow third-party messaging apps to send and receive carrier messages so users don't have to go through a messaging app to get any messages sent directly to their phone number. I don't feel that strongly about it, but the US government does.
The Justice Department is not happy with this frothy business
It's not just a consumer problem anymore: As part of a larger lawsuit against Apple, the U.S. Department of Justice denounced the company's messaging policies as anticompetitive. The U.S. Department of Justice claims that Apple intentionally made the messaging experience on non-Apple devices worse to persuade customers to buy iPhones.
Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit explaining this briefly:
"For example, if an iPhone user sends a message to a non-iPhone user in Apple Messages (the default messaging app on iPhone), the text appears as a green bubble to the iPhone user and contains limited functionality: the conversation is not encrypted, the video will be encrypted. Pixelated and grainy, users can't edit messages or see typing indicators. This signals to users that competing smartphones are of lower quality because the experience of messaging friends and family who don't have an iPhone is worse, even though Apple, not the competing smartphones, are to blame for the poor user experience.
The green bubble has officially become a problem for the U.S. government. "The Justice Department not only accuses Apple of making messaging worse outside of the Apple ecosystem, it also points to the social stigma these experiences create among certain groups of people, especially younger users:
"Many non-iPhone users also suffer social stigma, ostracism, and blame for "ruining" chats when other participants have iPhones. This effect is particularly important for certain groups of people, such as teenagers, where according to one survey the iPhone's share is 85%. This social pressure increases switching costs and encourages users to keep buying iPhones—reinforcing Apple’s smartphone dominance, not because Apple makes its smartphones better, but because it cedes competition to other smartphones. Communication gets worse.
The microphone dropped. "The Justice Department also has citations to back up its assessment: They highlighted a March 2016 email forwarded to CEO Tim Cook by Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, which read: "Move iMessage to Android It’s going to hurt us more than it helps.” The more damning quote, though—at least in my opinion—comes from a 2022 Q&A. Someone questioned Cook saying, "This is hard...not to make it personal, but I can't send certain videos to my mom." The Apple CEO responded: "Buy your mom an iPhone." Ouch .
things will change soon
Even before the Justice Department set its sights on Apple, change was brewing. Back in November, the company announced it would be bringing RCS to iPhone, finally bridging the gap between platforms. If Google is to be believed, RCS support will roll out this fall, possibly as part of iOS 18.
Once Apple supports RCS, sending messages on an Android device won't be much different than sending messages on an iPhone. Of course, you won't be able to easily initiate FaceTime calls (although Android users have workarounds for FaceTime calls), but you will be able to send high-quality pictures and videos, create group chats, and trust that your messages are protected by the same iMessage End-to-end encryption protection. (Texting is very unsafe, friends.)
By the time the court hears the case, the Justice Department's argument about the green bubble may be largely irrelevant—and that's a good thing for all of us. They can still attack Apple for restricting third-party messaging apps on iOS, not to mention the rest of the allegations in the 88-page lawsuit, but they can't say Apple intentionally turned SMS into Android. A significantly worse and less safe experience. I fully expect Apple to continue to make this as clear as possible when you're sending messages to people other than iPhone users (the green bubble is probably here to stay), but as long as RCS does what it's supposed to do, I don't think it will A big deal.
My greater hope is that these changes will also reduce the stigma that comes with being a user of the “green bubble.” You might think that once text messaging becomes more or less the same, whether you use iMessage or RCS, people might give up on the whole thing. But there are a lot of people with a negative bias toward green bubbles, and they may not change that quickly.
If people don't adjust their views after RCS comes out, the Justice Department may still have a case at this point. Hopefully, however, the rest of us — and those new users who are just starting to send messages for the first time — won’t care what color our message bubble is, as long as it works properly.
