Android isn't cool with teenagers, and that's a big problem

You may be right about Android phones sucking more than they used to regarding replaceability, customizability, rootability, etc., but I don't think that's why Android isn't cool. I think it's because teenagers that have iPhones make fun of people who show up with green colored text bubbles in their texts, and make fun of Android as something for poor people.

How do they suck now?

> Would you buy a $1000 android phone when it’s just a worse iPhone?

How is an android phone a worse iPhone? Genuine questions, my opinions are entirely opposite and I would like to understand your perspective.

Isn't the group chat limit of 20 set by the carrier though, and not by the OS? Shouldn't people be complaining to their carriers? Also, RCS solves this limitation, not that it matters on iOS.

The fact that international calling and texting can cost a ton of money when I can message someone over the internet for free via wifi is nutty.

Paying for SMS messages, when it costs phone companies literally nothing, is what should be illegal.

I don't see any issues when sending SMS from iOS to Android and vice versa.

What you want is for Apple to be forced to extend its proprietary system to non-Apple systems, but when you say it like that it's obvious what an unfair nonstarter it is.

Your problem comes from that fact that Apple cleverly introduced way more capability in the very same Messages app, for other Apple users only.

None of the complaining like yours would be happening if Messages was left as SMS only and apple had shipped a separate iMessage app, which is exactly what Whatsapp is. But there's Apple's forte. They have Bluetooth, but buying Airpods automagically works better.

I also 1000000% guarantee you that the designers spent a LOT of time analyzing the green bubble colour to make very it a slightly (but not too much) aggravating green. There are many many more pleasant shades of green.

Edit: OK yeah, a designer explained it here: https://uxdesign.cc/how-apple-makes-you-think-green-bubbles-...

iOS is a nice unified experience. Contrast that with your run-of-the-mill mid-range Verizon-branded Samsung, which has 4 phone dialers, 3 app stores, and insists you log in with 3 different accounts to get the "full experience."

Unless you buy an off-the-shelf Android device with a fairly clean software environment, your experience with Android will be one full of non-removable outdated redundant bloatware. It's all on Google that they allowed OEMs and phone companies to push their crap software onto Android phones.

This plus the last thing I need is to add another device with another ecosystem to my home datacenter. I am not going to hand my kid an Android phone and be on the hook for tech support when something goes wrong.

That's perfect. I also don't like shallow hoes who judge people based on what phone brand they have. How is that automatic selection a minus? Sounds more like you dodged a bullet.

But yeah, I feel what you're saying. People today can be very shallow, comfortable and convenience oriented, so unless they see you as being a super valuable individual form the start, they definitely won't be interested in investing any extra effort in you, like something as trivial as not messaging you because a bubble color, especially in this society where everything is tuned and gamed for instant gratification, including human interactions.

It's quite dehumanizing actually, that we're being stripped away from what makes us good and unique people, and are reduced to soulless corporate designed 'bubbles' or avatars, conditioned to prioritize nonsense consumerist trivialities just to fit in and not be outcasted.

Presumably bundling with their parents plans, as birthday or Christmas gifts, or hand-me-downs. All three can take advantage of iMessage just the same.

And personally, as long as we're sticking with the Pepsi tagline, I much prefer

Pine64: The choice of a GNU generation.

For example, in the case of iMessage, it is the sole reason I even pay for the first level of iCloud storage: Apple will advertise the convenience and "quality" of their messaging solution, yet to effectively use it and sync it everywhere as it is supposed to, you will be REQUIRED to pay for the iCloud storage. Otherwise, it just won't work. To add insult to the injury, they provide ZERO management tools to manage/archive/backup/restore messages when the competition does that for free. You have 2 options, aggressively prune all your messages, losing valuable history or pay up. Without that your messages are stuck on a single device, not backed up, not synced, stuck on a small display with almost no management capabilities (barely just search). If you don't pay, iMessage is basically a minimum viable improvement on SMS/MMS, it sucks. All the tools allowing you to do more rely on a Mac, are very often paid and/or require specific knowledge/skills; they make it an annoyance to extract the damn thing, on purpose. Anyone thinking otherwise is a fool. I'm fairly sure they stuck with low bandwidth USB on their phone to make it as painful as possible to sync your phone the "old" way so that they can upsell you to their could "solution", for a problem they completely created and meanwhile they advertise Thunderbolt for their computers even though since they dropped external GPU support the only thing that could meaningfully use the bandwidth is high-speed storage device, like you know, an iPhone...

The reason people even started using iMessage is because it was merged with SMS at a time when mobile data was still expensive and not everyone would have the possibility to get data on their phone. It was a convenience for Apple users, but then SMS lost relevance and they never opened up their proprietary solution while completely forbidding other developers to access the messaging capability of their phones. Their messaging solution didn't win on its own merit and now they refuse to compete fairly with others because they control the whole stack. It makes the case of Microsoft with Windows/Internet Explorer combo look like a minor mistake, because at least you could install an alternative that would be able to replicate all the functionality... It is basically abusive monopolist behavior they complained about when they launched the iPhone, oh the irony.

If you don't understand the implications of overpaying for technology at the society level, that's really your problem. People making a lot of noise about this are doing you a favor, not the other way around. The reality is that while they make an obscene amount of profit, thanks in no small part to their uncompetitive behavior, they only make useful devices for about half the market. And this is only because we count a lot of older devices (the ones given to kids) who are largely obsolete and painful to use day to day. If you look objectively at the technology Apple isn't really competitive and many people end up getting an Apple device because they feel they have to, in no small part because of iMessage but also because of other implicit lock down. I can guarantee you that if Apple made it easier to switch to something else, many people would not keep using them long term; it is unreasonably expensive in the long run for what you get (especially consider how much of a pain their recent devices are to repair). And people talk about Android because it is the only viable option left. Unless you want to be a Linux hacker there really isn't any other option for a smartphone OS; and the problem is that a smartphone is basically a requirement to function in society today. So, when you have a major pig eating everything in sight, you root for the cow, at least she only eats the grass.

Yes, people just want to use their phone, but they don't want to be left out of some social group because they didn't spend way too much money for a technology that is not superior in any way but will even have a higher usage cost for feature parity. If iPhones users would use WhatsApp or whatever other messaging application is suitable there would be no problem at all.

And for your information, teenagers use whatever their parents deem ok, good enough, cheap enough, secure enough, and so on... The reality is that a lot of parents give their older devices to their children because it is cheaper and easier that way and the only ones who are going to make a different choice are the technology geeks (the ones who are most likely to be interested in Android in the first place). Apple solutions for control are also a major reason I believe. Apple is a control freak; it is only normal that they enable control-freak behavior for their customers to completely police and put their kids on a leash. My father was a major control-freak asshole and last time I saw him and his new partner, they pointed out "screen time" and "find my" as a major reason to give an iPhone to her children. Apple is basically enabling dystopian like policing of children by their parents, and I think it's a massive societal issue but that's another argument altogether.

In their thirties?

I'm only half joking: between the Samsung Galaxy S-whatever my parents gave me as a graduation gift and a work provided iPhone, the first phone I paid for myself was in my thirties. Phones are only becoming more durable and expensive and wealth inequality isn't getting any better.

'teach a kid in their youth, and they will not stray' or something like that.

It seems like you can get an iPhone 12 in "like new condition" for around $300.

That said, I vastly prefer Android on its own merits. I would not buy or use Apple even if they open up.

To be honest, Apple should be ashamed of themselves for literally inventing whole-cloth a new form of Discrimination. "Intersection of Humanities and Technology" sure does take on a whole new meaning in that light.