Google Asks Regulators to Liberate Apple’s Blue Text Bubbles::Yes, even Google appears to be tired of green texts on the iMessage app.

  • tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Blue bubble in iMessage means the message is encrypted and fully functional. Green bubble means it’s not encrypted and some features (like sharing videos) wont work properly.

    Apple has gained a lot of market share in recent years, and apparently it’s a thing to make fun of that one person in a group text who’s using an android and forcing all the bubbles to be green. Kinda silly, and I’m sure Google’s ultimate goal here is getting access to more user data (over any concerns about “openness” or bullying), but there you go.

    • 800XL@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh, no kidding? Encrypted vs unencrypted too, or is that only it? I had no idea.

      Totally agree that google just wants info tho.

      • tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        iMessage does end-to-end encryption by default, but only between iMessage clients (blue bubbles). I believe (someone correct if I’m wrong) that android’s basic messaging app does SMS by default, which does not support encryption. So iMessage can communicate with android phones, but only by falling back to basic unencrypted messaging, which it displays in a green bubble.

        There are other proprietary iMessage features too, like animated messages, that don’t work for android at all. And I suppose to be fair to Apple users, it is kind of annoying having an android in a group chat because tagging a message (thumbs up or whatever) doesn’t actually tag it, it just sends a message that says says “so-and-so liked a message”. Not worth bullying someone over, but I get the irritation.

        • Dkiscoo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Android does RCS and only falls back to SMS or MMS because that’s all Apple will let iMessage use. RCS is an open standard that supports end to end encryption, full video and image sharing, and everything else iMessage does. Android can even translate iMessage message tagging and display them properly, but apple purposefully makes the experience worse if messaging non apple devices.

      • BT_7274@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        iMessage is the iPhone’s default texting app. It comes preinstalled on all their phones.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          The app is called Messages. iMessages are what are sent through Apples messaging system which is only available to Apple devices.