In late 2022, Google pleaded with Apple to “get the message” and end the green and blue bubble controversy by adopting RCS messaging. Apple’s response finally came at WWDC 2023, where they introduced a new iOS 17 feature called Contact Posters. This feature, instead of bringing people together, only furthers the us-versus-them divide between Android and iOS.
If you thought the green/blue iMessage debate might get heated, there’s more arrive.
Good green, bad green
Before getting into Contact Posters, it’s best to look at the green vs. blue notification controversy. Apple’s iMessage messages appear in blue bubbles when sent and received by the iPhone, but when the iPhone receives an SMS message from an Android phone, it appears in a green bubble. While it may sound harmless, this difference has apparently caused rifts online, in the schoolyard, in friendships, and even in relationships over the years. It seems like Android’s green bubbles aren’t as interesting or appealing as the blue bubbles.
To many people, this sounds pathetic and in fact – to most people outside the US – it is considered an oddity due to the popularity of messaging apps like WhatsApp, WeChat and Line. Now, is there any debate about it? Actually What happens is up for debate, but there are enough stories to suggest this is a big problem for some (uncomfortably narcissistic) people. A 2019 story published in the New York Post was a particularly eye-opening one, with some Tinder daters calling text conversations with green bubbles a turn-off and a thread on Hacker News in 2022 seemed to confirm that it still exists today.
But it goes much further than that, as the author of this 2016 Gizmodo story said they planned to buy an iPhone to increase their chances of relationship success. It’s not just dating life but other places too. In 2014, the coach of a basketball team chastised players for one person’s green bubble in a “pure” blue bubble group chat. that is adultand even though such confrontations do not occur as often as we would like to believe, that does not prevent its existence. madness.
Contact posters are coming
If Android phone owners are being shunned with text messages, iOS 17 will now see them shunned by the same lunatics with voice calls. A new feature called Contact Posters lets you completely customize the screen that appears on the other person’s iPhone when your iPhone is calling.
You can use Portrait mode selfies, different fonts and colors for your name, and even use a Memoji instead of a photo of yourself. When an iPhone calls another iPhone running iOS 17, it’s pretty obvious who it is and that the call is coming from another iPhone. And thanks to the new NameDrop feature, you can also keep two iPhones running iOS 17 together to share your Contact Posters with others.
It can also be a way to get rid of those unwanted and unclean Android calls. When an Android phone calls an iOS 17 iPhone, it will be pretty obvious will not is an iPhone call. Is it a robocall, a wrong dial, or an Android phone? No one will know and no one will care – they will just send it to voicemail. The possibility that some people (perhaps Contacts?) will only accept calls presented with a Contact Poster is quite real because we live in such a world.
There are some who believe that iMessage’s obnoxious green bubbles were intentionally designed to look unattractive on iPhones, so perhaps Apple will also add a large green background for non-iPhone calls? Whatever happens, at some point there’s no way this won’t cause a problem similar to the green/blue message bubble problem. Once again, Apple has introduced a feature that clearly divides those who have iPhones and those who don’t. It leverages visual tools that can be much more personalized, fun, and eye-catching to make you look cool, fun, and interesting before the person you’re calling even picks up.
What will the world do?
Why would Apple do this when they should be bringing people together? They do so because they can and because they have every right to do so. Apple is making the iPhone ecosystem more attractive than the competition, and it’s as functional as ever. The walled garden where Apple devices live is very famous and is actually a solid reason to buy Apple products in the first place. Contact posters, like iMessage, are another benefit of being a club member.
However, for whatever reason, some people consider features like these to be nefarious and exclusive. Google certainly does, perhaps because it has never known how to create (and continue to operate) a single successful messaging platform.
So what is the solution? It’s actually extremely simple. If you want iMessage and blue bubbles, Contact Posters, link-free FaceTime calls, AirDrop, NameDrop, or any other iOS feature, buy an iPhone. They are very good. The great thing is that Android phones are also very good and a normal, well-adjusted human being will not care one way or the other about the color of the message or what is displayed on the screen when the phone rings . They’ll just want a good phone and luckily, there are plenty of options these days.
Or you can just use WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, Signal or any other app like the rest of the world and forget call bubbles and screens altogether.
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