We’ve all experienced it at one point or another — either you’re the iPhone user who sees a green chat bubble and wishes everyone just had the same phone so this wouldn’t happen, or you’re the non-iPhone user who knows you’re the one who turned the chat bubble green. Either way, it’s disappointing, and there are some strong feelings out there when it comes to green versus blue text bubbles on iPhones.
A lot of those feelings come from the fact that Apple just refuses to be more accommodating to users of other devices. There’s a system out there, called rich communication services (RCS), that lets users of different devices text each other seamlessly. No worrying about whether the other person will be able to see your emoji or video because they have a different brand of smartphone.
Apple, however, has yet to adopt RCS, and CEO Tim Cook recently gave us some insight into his feelings on the matter. When an audience member at the Code 2022 conference asked if Apple would adopt RCS so that his Android-using mother could better view videos he texts her, Cook responded, “Buy your mom an iPhone.” So yeah, that’s pretty much a hard pass on RCS. Let the green bubbles and grainy videos endure.
