(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
I think the most frustrating part is Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids and people aren’t like “Oh, fuck them for doing that”, they’re like “Oh, Android sucks.” Like it’s just a wildly successful and incredibly scummy tactic to convince people that Apple devices are superior and people didn’t just fall for it, they’re willfully diving in headfirst.
It’s a shame, really, because I do think they make some pretty good hardware. Might not be my thing, but they make a good phone. That said, I’ll never patronize them because of the bullshit I’ve had to endure trying to communicate with my iPhone-owning family.
i’ve only ever heard about this “green bubble” thing from USA media.
do Americans still use SMS?
why? phone numbers are obsolete. my SMS inbox going back years is just 2FA security codes, and they’re very rare these days, since authenticator apps.
Yeah sms ought to be the standard default. Since companies like apple refused to help improve it, people like you turn to other solutions. If you use WhatsApp, you should know Facebook owns it and uses it to spy on you for profit. I’d prefer “obsolete” sms to that…
RCS should be the default. SMS is the protocol designed for old non smart cellphones.
The exact problem is that Apple DOES default to SMS outside of imessage
You’re right… but isn’t RCS designed to be a superset of sms, with sms being a fallback for old clients on the other end? Really I meant “there should be a standard text protocol for all devices” which is what sms was originally, it just lacked all but the most basic of features.
I don’t like RCS entirely in its current form but I believe that (I could be very wrong but) SMS is planned to be phased out in the long term, how they plan to replace its reliability is beyond my understanding.
There are still no FOSS RCS implementations on either platform.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted.
Right but it’s also owned by Facebook so it’s doubtful they aren’t using all possible means to spy on you regardless of that fact
RCS is also encrypted fwiw
Also fwiw Google can still see what you write if you use their keyboard (or OS, but I can’t bet on that, and their software being able to see it doesn’t mean they record it, just that they can)
Just as Apple can too BTW.
Definitely. Not sure putting one’s trust in Google is much better though.
I mean, Google didn’t actively decide that facilitating genocide was worth the dollars it earned them 🤷
They tried to but employees stopped it (they staged a walkout or something IIRC)
Fair enough, Google is definitely the lesser of evil comparing them. But encrypted Meta versus non encrypted Google is not a no-brainer decision.
Not sure what Google service you mean, but RCS is also end to end encrypted
Still popular in Australia, at least in my demographic
Same here, it’s all 2fa and appointment reminders for things. Even my elderly relatives uses WA now.
They will have to open up in 2024. Thanks to the EU.
Yes! I’ve been saying this for many years, but my Apple cult-member friends don’t want to believe me. It’s gotten better over the years, but Apple used to be so incompatible with everything else, almost like it was done on purpose to force more market share…🤔
In what way exactly? All the messaging apps I use work fine. I even have the same Signal account logged in through both my Android phone and my iPad.
Nobody I know actually uses iMessage either. It’s a complete non-issue as SMS is quite an outdated technology.
USA still uses SMS for a variety of reasons.
Come back to me after convincing a group of non tech-savvy iPhone-using friends or family to use literally anything but whatever the default messaging app is available on their phone or whatever they’re already used to.
My grandma uses WhatsApp. The only reason I’ve ever used SMS is to receive a verification code