I asked if people chose iPhone for the blue bubbles elsewhere a couple days ago, and while there was some good discourse on that post, the blue bubbles definitely also came up as a reason.
In my experience, when people find out my texts are green, they oftentimes would rather switch to a different platform altogether like Instagram or just not text at all.
Is this actually a deal-breaker in friendships out there?
Android is switching over to RCS where available, as long as you use the Google Messages app. The default app on a lot of phones don’t support it, but all major carriers in the US do support it. RCS is far superior to MMS or SMS. RCS also supports reactions, receipts, etc, though I’m unsure about whether or not it supports high quality media, but I do know that I’ve had no issues getting good pictures texted to me from other Android users who have RCS. If apple would follow suit, this would be a non issue, but Apple refuses to play ball, so they can use it as a marketing tactic. I’d bet that if they opened up iMessage to Android, there would be a whole lot of people adopting it, just so we’re all on the same page, but yet again, Apple refuses to play nice. This entire thing is Apple’s fault for wanting to keep iPhone users in a walled garden.
I wouldn’t say Android is switching, I’d say Google is switching. There’s no support in Android itself. Third-party SMS apps cannot hook into RCS. There’s limited carrier support. Google is running the RCS relay, and it’s only at the app level, not the OS level. This might seem like an academic distinction to some people, but certainly not to the billion or so users in China, anyone who likes third-party apps, or anyone who prefers deGoogled Android OSes.
Most carriers still don’t support RCS themselves, Apple would need to build their own relay like Google did.
RCS itself is not necessarily E2E encrypted, though Google has hacked that on top if you use their app. This is not an improvement over other closed systems like iMessage. It’s just another closed system.
And because it’s Google, the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Doesn’t work on Google Fi or Google Voice, last I checked.
You couldn’t pay me to adopt another Google messaging platform after they’ve jerked me around endlessly with g-chat/Hangouts/Duo/Voice. I’ll use RCS when it’s truly open and standard. As long as Google is the gatekeeper, I’m out.
The whole system is a mess, largely thanks to Google’s mismanagement.
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