Ashley, who is back single, recently wanted to use the dating app to find a new person, and after swiping left and right, Ashley finally picked out a potential object that looked good, Jack.
Ashley had a good impression of Jack, and soon the two exchanged cell phone numbers and agreed to try Taco at a nearby bar.
Everything went well, but to Ashley's surprise, even though Jack knew her phone number, he only messaged him on the dating app instead of using text messages that were more convenient and less likely to miss messages.
After the two met, before Ashley could ask her questions, Jack took the lead in confessing to her.
I think I need to make it clear to you that I... Its practical use is android phones.
Before Ashley could react, Jack continued, "I had dated other girls before, but when they learned I was using an Android phone, there was no follow-up. The reason is that they don't want to chat with green bubbles."
That's why, I'm afraid to message you.
Don't date "green bubbles"
This is a personal experience shared by Ashley Carman, a veteran journalist at The Verge, in a podcast.
She believes that "green bubble" discrimination is becoming a social problem and only exists in the United States, because few users in countries or regions will love to chat with text messages as much as Americans, rather than using instant messaging apps such as WeChat and Whatsapp.
Before Apple launched the iMessage service transmitted over the network in iOS5 in 2011, the bubble frame of the SMS was not blue and green, and it was all "green".
iMessage can transmit documents, images, videos and other content, the function is much richer than the traditional SMS, in order to distinguish from the traditional SMS sms, Apple designed the iMessage bubble frame to blue. At the launch a year later, newly appointed CEO Tim Cook announced that more than 300 billion messages had been sent through iMessage.
From a functional point of view, the "blue bubble" iMessage is better than SMS sms in almost every way, except for one problem - iMessage only exists among Apple users online, if the other party has a poor network, does not open iMessage or Android users, the message box will turn green.
The simple color difference was originally only for the purpose of distinguishing functions, but after years of development, iMessage has become one of the most extensive social networking services, and the social cracks generated by bubble colors have been magnified countless times.
In a FastCompany report, a 16-year-old youth was excluded from the group chat of the class because he was using an Android phone, and discussions about homework and extracurricular projects were not related to him, because his classmates did not want to see "green bubbles". In order to fit in the class, he had to replace his Pixel 2 with an iPhone.
This is not an isolated case, as a search for keywords related to "green bubble" on Twitter reveals hundreds of complaints about "green bubbles."
Not being able to video call and not being able to see the bubble frame in the input are the reasons why these Apple users hate the "green bubble", which they think drags them back to the prehistoric era of the Internet, which is still stuck in text communication, and this emotion makes them resist chatting with Android users.
This sentiment is particularly pronounced among American teens.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled "Why Did iMessage Win?" The report mentions that many American students have been bullied by bubble colors because of the use of Android phones, they are either ostracized or ridiculed by friends, and when they change back to iPhones, the original harsh ridicule will instantly turn into a warm welcome.
"Oh my God you're finally blue, welcome home." When CNET's content strategist, Mike Sorrentino, accidentally switched back to an iPhone, he received unanimous welcome from friends and family around him, which meant they were finally back in the same group chat.
Mike said it was a bit of a surprise to mike that several of his friends who had created whatsapp accounts for him in the past had cancelled their accounts after switching to an iPhone.
The text message bubble frame seems to build a wall between people, the outside of the wall is painted a dazzling bright green, and the inside is the quiet blue of the years.
I want to replace text messaging for iMessage
According to statista, the number of SMS and MMS messages sent across the U.S. in 2020 exceeded 2.2 trillion, compared to 48.4 billion in the U.K., which is only equivalent to the amount of information sent by Americans in half a year, even if the information sent by the U.K. in the last decade is added together.
For most Americans, even though they have countless social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Snapchat, etc., once they want to chat, they will eventually return to the most quaint text messages.
As a result, a better text messaging experience is a killer service for most Americans.
In contrast, features such as ultra-high-speed fast charging and high screen brushing seem to have become irrelevant — the phone will be full sooner or later anyway, but only the iPhone can be used to use iMessage.
If iPhone users are asked to pick the most inseparable iMessage feature, it means that the "... Bubble should be elected to first place.
This WeChat-like "the other party is typing" small prompt is now almost a must-have function of instant messaging software, but in the traditional SMS text message, the message is still like a small note that has been thrown, and only when it is hit does you know that someone is talking to you.
Some iMessage users regard this kind of sms exchange without warning as a kind of information disturbance, and they are accustomed to bubble reminders that they feel that they have lost control in the communication, and they do not know when to receive the message or when to reply to the message, which is one of the root causes of many people's resistance to communicating with the "green bubble".
At the beginning of the birth of Kik Messenger, the pioneer of instant messaging software, Aifan discussed the significance of this real-time status reminder in the article "The Value of Communication".
Because there are too many uncertainties in network communication, simple real-time feedback can effectively reduce the cost of communication, so that network communication becomes an effective, efficient and natural communication, which is not available in SMS messages like "throwing paper notes".
In addition to the basic chat experience, there is a huge functional gap between iMessage and SMS messaging.
iMessage, which connects Apple's software services, can not only send pictures and videos, but also transfer money, play games, send pop-up messages, share movies, shopping links, and so on.
Switching from "blue bubble" to "green bubble" is like walking from a palatial villa into a rough house, and the huge psychological gap caused by this functional gap is easily projected by iMessage users onto the bubble color.
Sarah Allred, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University who specializes in color perception, believes that the color of objects can often evoke a certain emotion in people, so this bubble color dispute may be because the color itself has some impact on the user's subconscious.
The low saturated blue color used in iMessage evokes images of the sky or the sea, making it feel peaceful and soothing. The highly saturated green color of SMS is difficult to find objects that can be referenced in nature, which is more likely to be reminiscent of artificial products and stimulates vision.
When this stimulation is associated with functional gaps, users are prone to disgust, and over time, the "annoying" green becomes a lingering label on the heads of Android users.
Hiroshi Lockheimer, a senior vice president at Google, believes that the closed environment of iMessage is a business strategy of Apple, and this use of peer pressure and even bullying to sell products is not sincere for a company like Apple that regards humanity and fairness as the core of marketing.
Hiroshi Lockheimer called on Apple to agree on the RCS service (a rich communication service that replaces SMS) as soon as possible to promote the exchange of messages between users of the two platforms and repair the gap between them, but Apple has never responded to this.
The insurmountable "walled garden"
Apple does not adopt a closed strategy for all services, such as Apple Music, FaceTime and other services have adapted to platforms outside the Apple ecosystem, many users are curious, why does Apple not launch a support Android version of iMessage?
Walt Mossberg, a well-known technology media person, once interviewed an Apple executive on this issue and was explained:
First of all, Apple's own active devices have exceeded the scale of 1 billion units, such a huge amount of data is enough for Apple's research on artificial intelligence learning; second, an information service that can only provide excellent user experience on Apple devices can effectively increase the sales of Apple devices. This strategy also seems to be confirmed in the speeches of other Apple executives.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said in a 2013 email: "I am concerned that porting iMessage to Android will only eliminate the concerns of iPhone families before buying Android phones for their children."
Three years later, Phil Schiller, then director of marketing, made a similar point to CEO Tim Cook in a separate email: "Porting iMessage to Android does us more harm than good."
iMessage, like other Apple eco-services, has built the iPhone into a "walled garden" through the bundling of hardware and software, and once users get used to this experience, they have to pay for relatively expensive devices.
It's a successful business strategy that gives the iPhone an almost unshakable dominance in the high-end phone market, but in the eyes of analyst Ben Thompson, it's almost a "soft monopoly."
In a blog post by Ben Thompson, the iPhone's main competence is not high-performance hardware, but iOS. If users want to experience the services of iOS, then the iPhone is their only choice, by constantly building up the service wall of iOS, you can attract more and more Android camp users to switch to the iPhone.
Image courtesy of Business Insider
Apple's "monopoly" on iOS gives the iPhone a competitive advantage that no rival has: Even if the mobile phone market reaches saturation, Apple's market share will grow over time.
The polarization of American teenagers because of iMessage is like a realistic version of this growth model.
According to Piper Sandler's latest U.S. Teen Survey, 87 percent of respondents own an iPhone, and 88 percent are willing to buy an iPhone, according to Harsh Kumar, executive director of Piper Sandler, a figure that is close to the highest level in their survey.
However, the "walled garden" built by iOS still has its own limitations, as long as there is a super app with dual platform unified service, the iPhone's leading position can easily be broken.
Compared to the blue and green bubble wars on the other side of the ocean, this may be a good thing.
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