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Comment by lowkey_ | Hacker News Reader

Was going to comment, anecdotal but I'm 24 and I absolutely prefer texting people with iMessage.

It's also a slight verification in some situations — if I were to get someone's number from a dating app, or chat with someone from Facebook Marketplace and the message was green, I'd be much more hesitant to message them.

It's a negative signal to me if it's green, as they may be using a Google Voice number or any other fake number system. This isn't to say someone couldn't have a burner iPhone, but it's way more effort than simply having a Google Voice number, and I haven't encountered that.

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What? All 30% of smartphone users with Android in the US are scammers?

I use a Google Voice number as my primary number and have for over ten years.

Yeah but if you see blue you have way more confidence that you are talking to a real person…

The statement isn't "most Android users are scammers," but "most scammers use Android."

I personally would be less likely to respond from a dating app or marketplace app in particular. Google Voice numbers are less traceable and more easily replaceable, which makes them more viable for scammers.

I don't fully understand this line of thinking. The vast, vast majority of Android users do not use Google Voice. They just have a different phone operating system than your phone.

I mean, your preferences are your own, and if you prefer to only date iPhone users, that's weird, but you're entitled. I am just struggling to understand the Google Voice connection here.

I was addressing the specific commenter who uses Google Voice, but to use the comment prior to that:

> It's a negative signal to me if it's green, as they may be using a Google Voice number or any other fake number system.

I'm not implying the vast majority of "green-bubble numbers" are Google Voice rather than Android phones, but that there is no verification they are not Google Voice numbers.

I'm not trying to be elitist at all; there's just a verification that happens with an iPhone texting another iPhone of (1) this is a real phone number, and (2) this isn't a cheap burner flip-phone someone just bought. When interacting with strangers from the internet, that verification is important!

" ... but that there is no verification they are not Google Voice numbers ..."

This isn't unknowable ... why don't you just check ?

  curl -s -X GET "https://lookups.twilio.com/v1/PhoneNumbers/$number?Type=carrier&Type=caller-name" -u $accountsid:$authtoken | /usr/local/bin/jq '.'

... or, if you're non-technical, just use mycarrierlookup.tv or checkcarrier.estonia or whatever ... there are 20 or more such sites extant.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a spam iMessage, but I get at least one green message from a spammer daily. And I doubt they’re using Android, it’s probably Twilio or other sketchier telecom providers.

This is ultimately a problem because regular SMS has zero authentication, whereas I iMessage is essentially walled off to legit users by the telephone carriers and Apple.

I’ve NEVER gotten a spam or phish from a blue bubble. 100% are green.

Green could be any type of source. Android, Twilio, google voice, who knows.

But if a random number comes in and it’s green, more often than not it’s spam. If it’s blue, more often then not there’s a real person behind it.

I've never got a phishing message at all. And the last spam message I got was 6+ months ago. I guess at some point Google figured out spam SMS blocking, or some other event has drastically decreased the rate of spam messages.

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