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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”

#151

Post by radiojasper »

dymk wrote: post #148
radiojasper wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wrong color, iMessage uses #64C567 for the green background, which has a higher contrast than the pair you supplied (1.85 versus 2.15)

Still doesn't pass? Also thanks for pointing out the error!

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

#152

Post by throwaway67743 »

The solution isn't RCS either, shoehorning yet another nonsense over a system designed to transmit operational messaging is absurd, just use proper rich media systems like the 10s of im platforms, or the reinvented wheels like matrix etc, it's in a similar vein to trying to add voice calls to IRC.

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

#154

Post by kelnos »

radiojasper wrote: post #134
wincy wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The funny thing is that simply changing the text color to black causes the green-on-black to pass all those metrics, with the blue-on-black passing everything but WCAG AAA with the normal font (but still passes on the larger font).

(Same result using #64C567 for the green bubbles, which a sibling pointed out is the correct value.)

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

#155

Post by TaylorAlexander »

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 would not discount visibility issues for anyone with a visual impairment. But at the same time there are a lot of issues listed on the page, with the color contrast only being one of them. You may consider the other usability issues more significant, but either way as a whole it seems to be a problem.

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

#156

Post by rootusrootus »

kelnos wrote: post #116
altairprime wrote: post #59

Most businesses, consumers, and developers universally continue to ignore the primary reason that iMessage is a closed platform, rather than an app on every platform as iTunes is: Apple is using device serial numbers for anti-spam, supported by a fully-authenticated hardware and software stack that does not allow user modification. This permits Apple to simply “console ban” any Apple device that spams on iMessage. Th…

I'd rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices, and cripple a bunch of critical applications if I decide I want to, y'know, actually do whatever I want with the hardware I own. I'm not unsympathetic to Apple's difficulties and goals here (assuming this spam problem is actually the reason, though I'm skeptical that there aren't also self-serving reasons that…

> I'd rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices, and cripple a bunch of critical applications if I decide I want to, y'know, actually do whatever I want with the hardware I own.

Egads, no. The abuse heaped on me by Apple pales in comparison to the spam phone calls and emails I get. If I start getting spam via iMessage, I'll be an extremely unhappy camper. It already happens with text messages and that's bad enough.

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

#157

Post by throwaway67743 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #146

> Texts from iPhones can’t always be sent to Android over Wi-Fi, leaving your messages unsent and convos hanging if you don’t have cell service. Yes they can? I have no cellular service at home but I have wifi, and my iPhone connects to "T-Mobile Wi-Fi" via my home internet. SMS messages are sent and received just fine.

Assuming you have an operator that supports wifi calling and a phone that both supports it and is "whitelisted" (basically USA, Europe does not do such silly things)

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

#158

Post by rootusrootus »

frumper wrote: post #117
Tagbert wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that is SMS spam originating from outside of iMessage

I definitely get iMessage spam

If you're 100% sure it's iMessage and not SMS, report it to Apple. They can ban that account.

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

#159

Post by guelo »

nomel wrote: post #129
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 used on the website is significantly brighter than on an iPhone. In fact, on the iPhone, I would say the green gives better contrast than the white text on a blue background. For direct messages, the colored bubbles are only used on messages you send. Messages received are always white text on black background (dark mode) or black text on grey background (light mode). edit: my bad. "increase contrast" optio…

It's objectively much worse contrast.

https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-CB781_1017ST_2_...

My contrast tool says the blue contrast is 3.4:1 while the green is 1.9:1

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

#160

Post by Angostura »

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…

This is the most trivial complaint I've ever read. I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles - it just means that it hasn't been sent via iMessage - if I send to an iPhone and sending falls back to SMS it looks just the same. I can't believe people get that upset about green v blue.
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