I only recently heard of the "green bubble stigma", it's not a thing here in the Netherlands at least. People use Whatsapp.
Then you have a super blue bubble effect if everyone uses WhatsApp then you don’t communicate with people who aren’t on WhatsApp.
My understanding of the blue bubble isn’t that the color matters it’s that iMessage functions only work with other iMessage users (eg, delivery is slightly different, sync with other devices, special emojis, reactions, etc). So if there’s one “green bubble” (ie, non-iMessage user) then the entire group text is downgraded to not do iMessage stuff.
Could you please stop making my life harder? No, not "literally everyone" has Whatsapp: I don't. Agreeing to T&C of some foreign corporation should not be a precondition to participating in the society, don't you think?
The green bubble effect is because some people do not want or cannot afford an Apple phone. There's a huge difference.
If Whatsapp came with a €400 base price and roughly 50% of people using something else, I'd understand.
Well, as a parent it really is difficult, you constantly have to explain yourself and arrange alternatives. Some context: Texting (SMSing we call it) is f-ing expensive here, ridiculous (25 ct/message? Unless you buy a plan, but why should you? There is Whatsapp... Nobody is going to use SMS with you, any parent will probably think: "Are you making me send an SMS [to come pick up your kid], really?").
WhatsApp can be installed on any device. iMessage requires specific hardware, i.e. an Apple iPhone.
It is always possible not to use either and just communicate by SMS (which I prefer myself, but as I understand it WhatsApp came to be used here in Belgium because phone plans are expensive and SMS are still limited/paid on most plans) but that's a different matter.
The matter here is that the commenter I was responding to says I don't exist. My experience is that folks with that attitude also treat me as if I don't exist. I object to both of these things.
Selling your first-born rights for a lentil soup, or agreeing to adversarial T&C of a foreign corporation should not be a precondition for participating in a society.
But its a steep upward slope to climb. Lots of data-siphoning apps are painted on buses or splash on city ad "walls" but whatsapp is actually a permanent fixture of the urban landscape in so-called "neighbourhood watch signs". A creepy dystopic image if there was one.
It's hard to understand it if you don't live in NL just how extremely omnipresent WhatsApp is. People use it for everything, from casual family chatter to highly serious conversations to quite literally business-related conversations. Not having WA will absolutely result in things like missing crucial information because "we send it in the WhatsApp group" and that of course in turn will be used as a mark against you when you're say, seeking a job.
This occurred before Facebook bought it and their recent T&S change that allows them to use WA usage to improve their algorithms basically was a case of "enjoy being forced to share your data with no recourse". There was tons of social pushback about it but nobody could do anything about it because the app is so entrenched.
I am thoroughly looking forward to the DMA and its impact on WhatsApp.
At the same time, the OP is not in a "bubble". You can't call something a bubble if almost everybody is inside it.
Now you have.
I uninstalled WhatsApp when they updated their policy.
I considered it, it’s too inconvenient. I did get my family and my in laws on Signal. Some friends as well. So I’m for more than 50% off of WA, fwiw.
Given how much Europeans bitch about America and American corporations, I continue to be dumbfounded by the tremendous love for Whatsapp. It's made by Facebook FFS. I am pretty amazed at the number of people who are happier with Facebook managing their private communications than they are Apple.
Or, it's just network effect and a lot of rationalization. That's the simpler answer.
Now it's just everywhere, helpdesks, schools, classes, parents, sportsclubs. All WA groups sadly. We even have this: [0], like it's some government sanctioned platform. Disgusting.
I am getting more and more people into Signal though. Some geeks on Element.io.
[0]: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=attentie+buurtpreventie+wha...
If I said “Neighborhood watch at /r/MyNeighborNameWatchDiscussion on reddit”, is that concerning too?
[0] https://blog.iusmentis.com/2021/05/10/mag-een-gemeente-whats...
Android users will still be second class citizens so the transition off Whatsapp or Signal will not happen.
If iMessage was as good on Android as it is on iOS, why would Android users switch? Or why would people buy iPhones in the first place?
Internal documents from Apple prove that they had builds of iMessage ready for Android but never released them because Apple knew iMessage was one moat that kept the userbase loyal and annoyed Android users enough through the bubble color discrimination to make them switch to iphone. Like parents heading down cheaper iPhones to kids instead of buying them android phones so they can all use iMessage.
FaceTime is currently available for Android users as well but the experience is shit to prove Android is poor and that iOS is the only way to go for the full experience.
I'm not making all this UB but tech YouTubers extensively covered Apple's iMessage moat with proof and arguments and how this works in their favor so I won't go into all the details.
It's a messaging app, you can either pretend people will give 2 flocks about not being able to message you "in the right color", or you know, install Whatsapp or any other competing messenger