I asked if people chose iPhone for the blue bubbles elsewhere a couple days ago, and while there was some good discourse on that post, the blue bubbles definitely also came up as a reason.
In my experience, when people find out my texts are green, they oftentimes would rather switch to a different platform altogether like Instagram or just not text at all.
Is this actually a deal-breaker in friendships out there?
The only time it’s an issue for me is when the other person isn’t willing to message me on another app instead of trying to use SMS. I get horrible cell service where I live and my only options are iMessage or an app like Signal /WhatsApp/Messenger.
So this is when adding someone with an Android to a group conversation that was taking place using iMessage can cause some irritation.
This makes me legitimately curious. If you’re having this limitation on iPhone, would you consider switching to Android, as the standard MMS protocol supported by Android (and every non Apple vendor) works on wifi/data just fine? iPhone not integrating iMessage with the MMS standard is what causes the issue here.
That’s a fair question.
I’m tech agnostic; whatever fits my need is what I use, and I can easily change devices and operating systems without skipping a beat. My entire family and nearly all of my circle are in the Apple ecosystem; it just makes it easier to communicate and keep tabs on my parents. For those that aren’t using iMessage, Signal is the preferred app.
I still use Android for work, but the only thing I miss about Android is notifications. Apple can’t seem to get notifications right.
Thanks for answering. Sounds like in this case Android would work for you, if you were comfortable using Signal or showing up as a green dot on your family’s iPhones. Not that I am recommending you change or anything.
I just wish* Apple would be more willing to integrate with standardized technologies, like MMS and USB-C. I get that they want to develop as much as possible inside the house, but some things are just inconvenient for their users when they have such a hardline stance.
So this is where I’ll disagree.
Android is not a good choice for my use case. Signal is excellent, I use it every day, but it’s not great when you factor in that I need to get elderly and non-tech savvy family to all download an app to talk to you. I might get some, but I won’t get all of them. The remaining ones deal with SMS, which I already said isn’t reliable where I am. Now factor in MMS messages, and they need to deal with degraded quality because I’m there. This changes in iOS 17, so it’s a short-term issue for them, but still a long-term problem for me.
Keeping tabs on my parents using Apple health and find my, can’t do the same with Android. Yes.m, they can share their location with Google Maps, but they don’t use Google Maps, so now I have to get them on that and help troubleshoot if something stop working.
FaceTime calls, again, possible but not easy for them to set up, so now we need another app.
Lifetime of device and cost of ownership. Without loading a third party version of Android, Apple still provides longer support, which means my phone lasts longer, cost me less, and leads to me contributing less e-waste back into the environment.
I like Android, I use it everyday, and sure, I could switch back, but I would lose more than I would gain. I would love if Apple would be willing to adopt a common standard, but they won’t do that unless it benefits them. Look at me, I’m in their ecosystem an unwilling to leave because my experience immediately deteriorates when I do.
So yeah, while messaging is a part of it, it’s not the whole picture.