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?
The most notable explanation I can point to is that Apple’s iMessage, below the hood, functions a lot like WhatsApp or Signal, being an IP Texting/instant messaging service, and offering various advanced features that regular SMS and MMS do not support. To some this is important, and they may think less of Android users as a result of this.
It als does not help that for one, Apple does not want to publish iMessage to the Google Play store, and for two, that there is no general advanced messaging standard in widespread use, that is being enforced as the mandatory standard unless absolutely not available at both ends by phone carriers and/or governments. If there was, the technical side of this would not be a problem.
Google tried to spread RCS as a standard but were shut out by Apple in the phone era. They bought a company called Grand Central station in the 00s and tried to do something similar pre smart phone era too but were shut out by carriers who wanted their mms fees.
Of course, everyone has crushed standards like xmpp and tricked people into thinking bloat like discord is how we should chat with each other.
I’m an Android user since the age of the beginning but know that even USA iPhone users that don’t openly mock your bubble color, they by and large think that.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I wonder if an apk version of iMessage exists out there
Doubtful. Apple never wanted it because why give non-Apple users access to an Apple product? One of the Apple execs said it was never a possibility.