iPhone users’ messages turn green when they send text messages to Android phones. When both people are on their iPhones, all messages are blue. This is not just about aesthetics.
When two iPhone users communicate, the texts are encrypted end-to-end, which means they’re more private and more secure. When iPhones send text messages using Android devices, the messages are sent via SMS, an old protocol that dates back to 1992. There are other drawbacks too, for years the little heart reactions you can add to a message have not been compatible across platforms, And videos sent between iPhone and Android will be compressed and sent in pathetically low quality.
Basically, this seems to be Apple’s fault. Google, the manufacturer of Android, wants to solve the problem. Google has adopted a new text messaging protocol that will solve all of these issues called RCS. Google wants to fix the green text problem By cooperating with Apple, but Apple seems to refuse. Apple could also make an iMessage app for Android, but they likely won’t either.
In an email unsealed in a lawsuit, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said, “iMessage on Android will simply remove [an] obstacle for iPhone families to give their children Android phones.” Another Apple employee said elsewhere that “the most difficult [reason] To leave the Apple universe is iMessage… iMessage amounts to a serious lock-down.” In other words, it’s about crushing their competitors.
When a reporter asked Tim Cook when Apple would adopt RCS, he quipped: “Buy your mom an iPhone. Nice, but you’ve paid for your iPhone, and your messages will turn green, not your Android mom’s. Apple is making life worse for you, a loyal Apple customer, to control your choices about your next purchase. It doesn’t hurt that it creates A disgrace to people who don’t want to spend $1,000 on a new iPhone either.
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