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“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

android.com

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Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#131

Post by dymk »

wincy wrote: post #115
blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

What? I don't even notice the difference in color except that I know not to use the tapback stuff when I'm texting an Android user. Does the green on white actually bother anyone? This seems like grasping at straws to me.

I've never heard this issue ever raised by anyone in real life.

I've only seen it brought up in internet tiffs about how Apple is using green message bubbles to "shame" non-Apple users. Which is similarly straw-graspy.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#132

Post by blinkingled »

nemothekid wrote: post #121
blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

iMessage was released on iOS 5 with the release of the iPhone 4S. Before then, all messages had a green background. Somehow sticking with the default of more than 10+ years is intentional maleficence by Apple?

No but not updating the default for 10 years in a way that mostly affects only Android users seems like borderline malfeasance to me.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#133

Post by kingTug »

blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

The puke-green text bubbles from android and calm-blue bubbles from iMessage always struck me as very intentional.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#134

Post by radiojasper »

wincy wrote: post #115
blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

What? I don't even notice the difference in color except that I know not to use the tapback stuff when I'm texting an Android user. Does the green on white actually bother anyone? This seems like grasping at straws to me.

https://color.a11y.com/ContrastPair/?bgcolor=3cd882&fgcolor=...

The colours do not pass the A11Y standards, which means people with poor eyesight can't read the messages properly.

This did made me curious to see if the blue background passes - and it doesn't either. https://color.a11y.com/ContrastPair/?bgcolor=047aff&fgcolor=...

At least the blue background passes WCAG AA with larger sized text, while the green doesn't pass at all.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#135

Post by Seanambers »

jacooper wrote: post #81
dt2m wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great point which I haven't heard before in this age-old debate. But until Apple's dominance starts to wane, there's no chance in hell they will provide iMessage for other platforms unless forced by regulation. If push comes to shove, they can implement heuristics which run texts from non-Apple devices through a harder spam filter. Spam isn't non-existent on the iMessage network, and there already seems to…

Well Apple is going to be forced anyway, the EU's Digital Markets Act will be enforced soon. And fines are up to 20% of global revenue .

As an iPhone user I do not like EU dictating how Apple software should work at all. The same with chargers as well.

Sure we can all have a discussion about how it should work - but having bureaucrats decide is the worst idea ever.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#136

Post by Vomzor »

boesboes wrote: post #4

Who uses sms anymore these days? I tried to go back to a non-smart phone, but it was impossible due to not having whatsapp. That might be a 'local' thing though, not sure. Anyway, they should just release imessage for android; that would piss off meta too, which is a win in my book ;)

No post body was provided.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#138

Post by kelnos »

I don't love RCS[0], but Apple implementing it (including the E2EE extensions) would strike a huge blow to messaging fragmentation immediately, at least in the US.

Hell, Apple doesn't have to ditch iMessage; they just have to support RCS for messaging with Android users, or group messaging with mixed Android/iOS devices.

I would also (grudgingly) accept an opening of the iMessage protocol so Google could implement it in the Android Messages app. Not ideal by any measure, and I figure Apple would never do this (and I suspect Google would hypocritically not want to do this anyway), but it would at least improve things.

The thing that's sad overall is that the current state of affairs is just a result of an anti-consumer corporate pissing match. The only losers here are the users, both on iOS and Android. And meanwhile both Apple and Google get to tout the benefits of their preferred solution as if they're both the good guys, fighting for their users. When in reality they're merely fighting for their own market dominance.

[0] Tying messaging to your carrier is just a continuation of the crappy SMS "portability" experience. Sure, most RCS backend implementations are currently provided by Google, but one thing I'd like to see would be the ability to select your RCS provider. Maybe others would crop up if this were an option, and if RCS were actually popular.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#139

Post by dymk »

blinkingled wrote: post #132
nemothekid wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage was released on iOS 5 with the release of the iPhone 4S. Before then, all messages had a green background. Somehow sticking with the default of more than 10+ years is intentional maleficence by Apple?

No but not updating the default for 10 years in a way that mostly affects only Android users seems like borderline malfeasance to me.

It's not a "default", it's an indicator of how the message was sent.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#140

Post by etchalon »

blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

The Green is historical, not a specific decision by Apple to hinder reading texts.

Before iOS 5, and the release of iMessage, all messages on iOS were green.

That Google is painting this as something else speaks to how disingenuous this whole conversation has gotten, in all corners.

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