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Why would Android users whine about bubble colors? They don't get any bubble colors on their phones. The only people whe care about bubble colors are those who see them. The whole point of RCS is to let everyone have a better messaging experience regardless of platform. Which this should help accomplish.
Actually Android users do get two different bubble colors right now. When it's SMS/MMS it's a very light blue. When it's RCS it's a much darker aqua blue. It also says "RCS Message" in the text box before you start typing versus "Text Message" if there is no RCS service available. On my Android phone I can totally tell who has an Android phone versus an iPhone.
 
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Almost certainly non-iMessage users with RCS will receive green bubbles.

Google et al. will continue to be mad.

This was all about the green bubbles and how they are frowned up by teens. Not about adopting RCS
 
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Almost certainly non-iMessage users with RCS will receive green bubbles.

Google et al. will continue to be mad.
Google isn't going to be mad over the color of the bubbles. They literally do the same thing on Android. Apple is going to implement RCS which is what they wanted from the beginning.
 
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Wow that's incredible news. I guess EU regulators spooked.... um I mean Apple's altruistic side triumphed. Anyway highly looking forward to this
 
Almost certainly non-iMessage users with RCS will receive green bubbles.

Google et al. will continue to be mad.

This was all about the green bubbles and how they are frowned up by teens. Not about adopting RCS

It was never about this except for maybe a few dumb middle school students, because outside of that I have a VERY hard time seeing who would truly care what color a bubble was in a text messaging app. If anything make my Android phone a nice big RED bubble please!
 
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Absolutely not true. How is it you imagine that a participant who doesn't have an app with identical features is going to implement identical features. :/
Apple controls how it decides to transmit data to each and every user in a group chat. There is zero reason that when an IMessage user shares a photo that it has to be crushed down to a resolution that can be sent via MMS. They could easily send the full res image to all the IMessage users and a lower res image via MMS to the non-imessage users. The MMS users aren't connected directly to the app at all. What gets sent to them is already different transmission path. The decision to reduce the functionality to ALL users in the chat is a very conscious decision. It's not driven by a technological limitation. It's driven by a business decision
 
RCS is so stupid. No thanks.

Get ready for "oh you're a green bubble? are you non-RCS green bubble or RCS green bubble?"

Or is it a new color? Brown bubble? Can you video chat with brown bubble people? Who knows. Imagine teaching your mom this.

It should be a brown bubble with a poo emoji next to every message. And when you get a text from them it should say "LOSER" in all-caps. It's part of a new strategy Apple is calling Dynamic Shaming. To ensure that all teenagers know you're a Total Lamewad if you don't have an iPhone. 😌
 
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RCS is so stupid. No thanks.

Get ready for "oh you're a green bubble? are you non-RCS green bubble or RCS green bubble?"

Or is it a new color? Brown bubble? Can you video chat with brown bubble people? Who knows. Imagine teaching your mom this.
Teach them what? You literally don't have to change any behavior to use RCS. It will just be used in place of SMS when both sides support it.
 
I believe a major driver for the blue/green bubble was just Apple marketing “poking” fun at android in order to reinforce iPhones status in the marketplace with existing iPhone customers. And unintended consequence was Google took offense at “poking” of android (which was primarily for existing iPhones customers), and in now became “poking a [google] bear with a stick”.

I think iMessages will still have a distinctive format, even with the addition of RCS messaging. But once again it is primarily for existing iPhones customers to reinforce the Apple brand loyalty (AKA “hey Apple fan boys you’ve still special”)
 
I believe a major driver for the blue/green bubble was just Apple marketing “poking” fun at android in order to reinforce iPhones status in the marketplace with existing iPhone customers. And unintended consequence was Google took offense at “poking” of android (which was primarily for existing iPhones customers), and in now became “poking a [google] bear with a stick”.

I think iMessages will still have a distinctive format, even with the addition of RCS messaging. But once again it is primarily for existing iPhones customers to reinforce the Apple brand loyalty (AKA “hey Apple fan boys you’ve still special”)
It's far more than just a different color. Having a green bubble in your group chat means Apple restricts the ENTIRE chat group to 2002 technology. It was a reasonable restriction when IMessage first released, but those technological limitations haven't been valid in a long time.
 
This is a smart move by Apple. They’re adopting the RCS universal standard from the GSM association which is supported by practically every wireless carrier in the world and is essentially SMS+ if you will (for the common person to understand). You can bet however that green bubbles will still be green bubbles when in SMS and iMessage will always be blue. I suspect there will be a new color scheme to denote you’re using RCS with another mobile user and this makes sense as it denotes what you‘re using to communicate. It’s simple.

If anything this is more of a move against WhatsApp/Facebook/Meta as most people use that as an alternative to iMessage and standard SMS around world to communicate.
 
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I don't like posting memes but if the shoe fits...

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It does not mean we will see everything as blue. And it will not be Google's bad version of RCS. All I hope is I can prevent it from my phone if it sitll isn't end to end encrypted.
 
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It does not mean we will see everything as blue. And it will not be Google's bad version of RCS. All I hope is I can prevent it from my phone if it sitll isn't end to end encrypted.
What is "Google's bad version of RCS?"
 
Not really. This is likely a defensive move meant to stall efforts in Europe to force interoperability with iMessage given new regulation on gatekeeper platforms. By adopting RCS, Apple likely thinks it can make a stronger case that the EU Commission should not force it to open up iMessage. Not sure if it will work though.
Well this won’t have any impact. If this means interoperability it’s just meeting the criteria of having the obligation to allow other messaging services to work together.
 
You don't need to teach Mom anything, because bubble color doesn't matter and it never did.
This statement is completely untrue. Ask any middle school or high school student in the US what happens when a non-iMessage user joins a group chat. The answer... Every single person in the group chat gets furious because the ENTIRE group chat just got artificially restricted to 2002 technology. Low res images, unviewable videos, no typing indicators, etc, etc, etc. So what happens then? They start a new group chat without the green bubble. That person without an iPhone gets explicitly excluded from every conversation. This is particularly painful because nearly every kid now has an iPhone for this exact reason. Any kid without an iPhone is basically an outcast because they will get kicked or explicitly excluded from every conversation. Source: parent of 5 kids
 
Me neither, what really confuses me is how for years the messages icon in macOS was blue, and then they changed it to green like the iPhone icon. If anything the iPhone should have gotten the blue macOS messages icon!

Anyways it’s about time they do this, I’m sick of having to email even the shortest video files back and forth to people with androids because of the horrible quality.

What’s next? Is Apple going to give us root access in iOS 18 so we can finally customize our phones that we own?? 🤞🤞
Originally all of the texts were green. Later on they added encryption between iPhone users, and that's what blue signified. They didn't change the app icon color, probably because it would have confused people.
 
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Yeah, universal standards are so great. If only Apple would have implemented Micro-USB phone connectors back in the day, or Blu-Ray discs, or phones with physical keyboards, or computers that used arrow keys to navigate rather than mice. That would have been great.
Literally no one is saying iMessage should switch ALL messaging to RCS. Just get the lowest common denominator off of 1995 technology when there is a far superior alternative.
 
Why is this stupid? RCS is simply the modern standard to SMS/MMS. It will make communication through text message better for everyone involved. Everyone benefits from this improvement. Instead of thinking which corporation wins or loses I prefer to think of how customers benefit. Adopting RCS is pro-customer and both sides will benefit with much improved texting between both platforms.

Because it solves no problem. There is already WhatsApp and similar apps for cross platform communication. Why do iOS users need RCS - we don't!!!

The real purpose of Google and EU complaining is that iMessage is an ecosystem gem that they are keen to break. The EU came for the Lightning port and it wasn't a big deal. But that emboldened them to come after iMessage. Next, they'll come after FaceTime. And next, multiple app stores: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/11/13/eu-iphone-app-sideloading-coming-2024/

This must stop!!! Apple should leave the EU market rather than break it's ecosystem. Close all the European stores and offices. Fire everyone. Setup shop in the UK. Europeans will still import them because that's how strong the product is. Send the EU dictators a message.
 
It is no more proprietary than SMS.

OK, I think I understand where you are coming from on this now.

The short answer is that of course it is proprietary! Protocols like USB, Thunderbolt, RCS, are most certainly proprietary technologies, owned, maintained and licensed (with or without royalties) by various organizations, companies, consortiums, etc.

Proprietary doesn’t mean platform exclusive. How exclusive a technology is, depends entirely on what the owner chooses to do with that technology. I think this is where you are likely confused (bleat bleat).

Longer answer: SMS itself is now in the public domain in nearly every country in the world (I only know of one country where SMS is not in the public domain). So while it was originally a proprietary technology, owned by the GSM Corporation, and it is still a standard maintained by GSM, to call it a proprietary technology (the way RCS most certainly is a proprietary technology) is not technically correct. Anyone and their grandmother can legally do whatever they want to and with SMS - no permission or licensing agreement needed (again in most countries).

PS. You really might want to make sure to have your facts straight before making such condescending posts.
 
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