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One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

uxdesign.cc

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Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#71

Post by sjsdaiuasgdia »

pipeline_peak wrote: post #50
lifeformed wrote: post #24

No one here read the article, it has nothing to do with it being green but with it being low contrast.

To be fair, he could’ve cut to the chase sooner. Since it was a UI UX article, HN readers probably aren’t aware that it’s a contrast between fonts and background, not blue vs green or green vs dark green.

It opens with an image of two green bubbles, one higher contrast than the other. The higher contrast one is labeled "Good" and the lower contrast "Gross".

After a two sentence paragraph expressing how the green/blue technical differentiation has become a social one, it then asks the question "Why is green worse than blue?" The next line: "The answer is color contrast."

What could they have realistically done to cut to the chase sooner in a meaningful way? The only real thing is ditching those two context building sentences. But it's two short sentences, providing relevant context.

Doesn't really feel like a valid criticism IMO.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#72

Post by staticassertion »

unknownaccount wrote: post #15

When will people realize that the point of differentiating between Android/iOS bubbles isn’t about discriminating against teenagers, but rather it’s about security. If my messages are being sent through an insecure protocol that leaks my messages to the police, carrier, and skids with a rtl-SDR (SMS) rather than a secure encrypted protocol (iMessage), I want it to be obvious. They have every reason to make “green bub…

That makes very little sense. If it's for security it does a terrible job of conveying that, nor would it help anything since you're already in the conversation with that person.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#74

Post by zzot »

malshe wrote: post #43

This is a clickbait. On my iPhone the green color is much darker than what the author shows in the article. Here are some images with the hex color codes for example: https://imgur.com/a/7k5dMtm

It's actually really cherry-picked samples. All messages (blue and green) in the Messages app fade out slightly as you scroll. The author picked a blue message from the bottom of the screen and a green one from the top. If only they scrolled around a bit... they would have noticed.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#75

Post by SllX »

Yeah no. The iMessage white-on-blue isn’t a significantly better contrast ratio. I would actually prefer black text here.

Low contrast UI elements are the calling card of Alan Dye’s design team. The iMessage and SMS contrast ratio doesn’t rank because there are so many other UI issues that have crept in from this team over the years. If the blue provides a slightly better contrast ratio, it is bound to be incidental and if I were a betting man, I would bet that someone actually likes the green used for SMS.

This entire message style by the way is a direct descendant of iChat AV where you could actually choose your message color. When Apple developed SMS and then iMessageS for iPhones, they chose basically iChat’s design, and picked their favorite bubble colors and what we have today evolved from that.

E.g.: [1] https://osxdaily.com/2011/02/14/prevent-annoying-im-text-sty...

(note the drop-down menu with “Lime” selected, you can Google around for other colors).

[2] https://flylib.com/books/en/1.463.1.538/1/

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#76

Post by malshe »

tpmx wrote: post #59
malshe wrote: post #43

This is a clickbait. On my iPhone the green color is much darker than what the author shows in the article. Here are some images with the hex color codes for example: https://imgur.com/a/7k5dMtm

A comparison between blue and green bubbles on your phone would be more relevant. Color space handling makes direct comparisons between screen grabs (from different devices) tricky.

The author used the screen grabs from different places too. On iPhone you can't have the blue and green bubbles side by side

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#77

Post by jasonjamerson »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #66
jasonjamerson wrote: post #3

I disagree with two things here. Green IS traditionally an off-putting color, when we're talking about light: aliens, x-files, goo, and everything witchy. But in this context the thing that's harder on the eyes is the bubble itself. So the lighter one is easier for me. Although I'd rather see no bubbles at all.

Nature is green though...

That's why I said green light, which is unusual in nature. Sure, it's a little green when it filters through leaves, but that's very hard to perceive because the yellow of the sun or the blue of the sky usually cancels that out. It's almost never enough to light up another object with green.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#78

Post by joshenberg »

freeplay wrote: post #60

It's not the color or contrast of the bubbles that make me think negatively, it's the fact that once I see a green bubble in a group text, I know it's going to be a bad experience. Any photo, video, or reaction gif that people send will be compressed down a couple of pixels and replies will often be out of chronological order.

I take so much shit for 'ruining the group chat' when it's always the complainants devices that is blocked from sending high resolution pics to poor people. Drives me fucking bonkers when I point out that their reactions to it are precisely why it's not being fixed.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#79

Post by unknownaccount »

schroeding wrote: post #68
unknownaccount wrote: post #15

When will people realize that the point of differentiating between Android/iOS bubbles isn’t about discriminating against teenagers, but rather it’s about security. If my messages are being sent through an insecure protocol that leaks my messages to the police, carrier, and skids with a rtl-SDR (SMS) rather than a secure encrypted protocol (iMessage), I want it to be obvious. They have every reason to make “green bub…

The shade of low-contrast-y green is similar to the one used by some browsers not too long ago when an EV TLS certificate was used, to underline the security of the connection. If it's the goal to implicate danger, this strikes me as a weird colour choice for dangerous messages, to be honest. This whole "thing" around "bad" green vs blue message bubbles appears a bit, for the lack of a better word, insane to me as a…

If they put a more fitting skull or danger icon on the bubbles instead people would really lose their shit.

Re: One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross”

#80

Post by malshe »

zzot wrote: post #74
malshe wrote: post #43

This is a clickbait. On my iPhone the green color is much darker than what the author shows in the article. Here are some images with the hex color codes for example: https://imgur.com/a/7k5dMtm

It's actually really cherry-picked samples. All messages (blue and green) in the Messages app fade out slightly as you scroll. The author picked a blue message from the bottom of the screen and a green one from the top. If only they scrolled around a bit... they would have noticed.

Great point. I just now confirmed that as well. The bottom message is much darker than the one on top
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