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Comment by iamthirsty | Hacker News Reader

I don't see Apple ever capitulating to opening iMessage unless absolutely forced, which will take a while even if it succeeds.

Almost everyone I know (less than 30 and outside of tech, in the south Florida area to be specific) uses an iPhone, specifically for iMessage. If you don't have an iPhone, people will avoid talking to you over text. Your social standing will also take a hit.

While I personally think it would be cool, since it would basically open the door to buying an Android phone Apple is not going to let it happen voluntarily.

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> Your social standing will also take a hit.

I can wrap my head around the usability and interoperability arguments but this idea that "social standing" is contingent on iOS vs Android just seems alien to me.

Are there really people that adjust their social circles based on what type of phone someone is using?

I'm sure there are some obnoxious people out there, but also I think there is a bit of a social hit resulting directly from the poor functionality. People are often lazy and/or not super tech literate, so for example when someone wants to send a couple pics from an event they'll default to iPhone-only group chat to avoid destroying the quality of the image, rather than using a different sharing mechanism. This is sometimes accompanied by a misunderstanding that Android phones are at fault for the downsampling, when actually it is the iPhone causing the issue and getting away with it due to majority rule.

Additionally, when you first make the switch (at least circa 5 years ago), any iPhone-only group chats you were already in will need to be restarted (with some care taken by each iPhone user involved), otherwise you will not receive those messages because iOS will continue to treat it as an iMessage on others' end. It is very easy to miss out on communications this way, and from there it's not all that hard to fall out of touch with people who weren't closer friends to begin with. Either you need to be proactive or your larger social circle needs to be thoughtful and/or really like you.

So with all these issues, there is a bit of extra work involved for everyone when Android phones are involved. Some circles are so iPhone-heavy already it would be a little awkward to be that guy making the whole chat green. Couple it with a false perception that Android coincides with lower socioeconomic status (obviously not true for certain devices anyway) and it's easy to see shallow people being petty about them. Plus less tech literate circles just accidentally excluding people and you get a real fear of social hurdles.

> Are there really people that adjust their social circles based on what type of phone someone is using?

Your wording suggests it's an active decision where they immediately cut someone out because the communication turns green. And for some, it is an active decision. It's a common "joke" to poke fun at people for making the bubbles green too. But the more insidious way it arises is like how you might see patches of grass dying off due to shade and eventually turning to dirt. Someone sends a meme or a video or a picture to the MMS friendgroup, no one can see it as it was originally intended, so the iPhone users create a "sidechannel" (way easier than moving to an entirely different app) iMessage group where they share the memes and videos. Eventually the culture between the MMS friendgroup and the sidechannel friendgroup diverge until they no longer associate. The blue grass grows while the green grass turns into a patch of dirt.

People will specifically not add android users to group texts. If I am making a casual group text, and there is one android user, it may just be easier to not add a person than turn everyone's text boxes green, reduce image size, etc.

Not social standing per se, but a 0.01% chance of being excluded isn't going to feel good.

Not so much adjust circles, but typically (obviously not always) Androids are seen as cheap and iPhones are seen as premium. (Young) people doing quick judgements of others use blue bubbles as a filter like nice cars and expensive clothes and watches.

Speaking for myself, I live in the hills and have shitty cell reception.

One friend in a group chat has an android, and that hoses the messages I send out, because Apple will default to SMS. It is quite maddening.

The main complaints from other seem to be about high def videos, pictures etc, which I don't personally care about.

They don't need to open iMessage IMO, they just need to use better practices for text messaging between iPhone/Android. Like images are downsampled to hell if a single Android user is in an iPhone group chat -- but any time I've texted groups containing only various Android phones, images are decent quality (even if the members are using different text messaging platforms, so not like this is a Google Messages or Samsung thing).

Idc about green bubbles or cloud access/being integrated with the Apple ecosystem, but the core functionality should be decent. They should not be using outdated standards for non-Apple messages, which sure seems like a ploy to keep people away from Android.

Without legislation dictating interop of all messaging platforms, I don't see how iMessage would ever be opened up. I just don't see an antitrust case against iMessage.

and til that people are living sad realities....won't talk to someone because of android....wow....you obviously don't know intelligent people haha

Android is not the reason they won't message you, The lack of iMessage is. Nobody I know cares what kind of phone you have. But they do care if you have iMessage or not.

Lack of iMessage essentially breaks group chats. So if you don't have iMessage, and everyone else does, you will intentionally not be added to the chat.

Lack of iMessage also means sending videos to you is going to take additional steps compared to other iMessage users. So they likely just won't send you the video.

Over time, the additional steps required to include a non-iMessage user, means you will receive less messages from your friends.

I don't like the situation, but that's how it is. If the majority of your friends/contacts use iMessage but you don't, then you will be excluded from chats. Not because you use Android, but because it is just more difficult to include you without iMessage.

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