Apple is ruining people’s relationships, apparently. At least that’s according to Elizabeth Warren. The US Senator posted a video on Twitter (now X) in which she says that green bubble texts are “ruining relationships” and are another “of the dirty tactics that Apple uses to keep a stranglehold on the smartphone market.”
It’s time to break up @Apple’s smartphone monopoly. Also, c’mon, let’s stop leaving green text people out of the group chats. It’s just not right. pic.twitter.com/pr61Idf9yKApril 18, 2024
For those not in the know, Apple uses different coloured bubbles in the Messages app to distinguish between iMessages and SMS texts on the best iPhones. The former show up as blue bubbles, while the latter appear as green bubbles. What’s the big deal? Those green bubble texts miss out on features such as read receipts and reactions, as they use SMS rather than the newer RCS format.
Warren posted this video in support of the DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple. In the suit, the government claimed that one of the world’s most successful and valuable companies has a stranglehold on phones, and stated bluntly that Apple uses it to extract more money from consumers. iMessage is explicitly mentioned in the lawsuit, arguing that Apple keeping the messaging app exclusive to iPhones is anti-social.
A big fuss about nothing?
The lack of iMessage support on Android means that people have to resort to using third-party apps like WhatsApp to send rich messages to iPhone owners without falling back to MMS like it’s the turn of the century. But RCS fixes that issue, allowing people to send and receive rich messages using the built-in messaging apps that come pre-installed on iPhones and Android phones.
But Apple has already confirmed that it is going to add support for RCS to the Messages app on the iPhone. While Apple hasn’t explicitly said when the newer messaging standard would arrive, leaks from Google and others point to it rolling out in the fall. This would be alongside the release of the iOS 18 software update this fall, and now it appears that we might have been right on the money with that. The addition of the RCS feature is only part of the iOS 18 update expectation, however. Apple is roundly expected to add some new AI features to the mix
With RCS messaging on the way to iPhones, the green bubbles vs blue bubbles debate is somewhat of a moot point. It seems odd for Warren to use this specific argument to show support for the DOJ’s lawsuit, when it is one of the weakest complaints in the suit. Those relationships Warren thinks Apple is ruining? Non-iPhone users won’t be excluded for much longer.
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