I think the most frustrating part is Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids and people aren’t like “Oh, fuck them for doing that”, they’re like “Oh, Android sucks.” Like it’s just a wildly successful and incredibly scummy tactic to convince people that Apple devices are superior and people didn’t just fall for it, they’re willfully diving in headfirst.

It’s a shame, really, because I do think they make some pretty good hardware. Might not be my thing, but they make a good phone. That said, I’ll never patronize them because of the bullshit I’ve had to endure trying to communicate with my iPhone-owning family.

i’ve only ever heard about this “green bubble” thing from USA media.

do Americans still use SMS?

why? phone numbers are obsolete. my SMS inbox going back years is just 2FA security codes, and they’re very rare these days, since authenticator apps.

Yeah sms ought to be the standard default. Since companies like apple refused to help improve it, people like you turn to other solutions. If you use WhatsApp, you should know Facebook owns it and uses it to spy on you for profit. I’d prefer “obsolete” sms to that…

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted.

Right but it’s also owned by Facebook so it’s doubtful they aren’t using all possible means to spy on you regardless of that fact

Definitely. Not sure putting one’s trust in Google is much better though.

I mean, Google didn’t actively decide that facilitating genocide was worth the dollars it earned them 🤷

Fair enough, Google is definitely the lesser of evil comparing them. But encrypted Meta versus non encrypted Google is not a no-brainer decision.