re: Apple Or Android? May The Battle Continue.

quote:

---

Do Apple people only use one type of messaging or something?

---

The whole “green text messages” thing goes back a long way. While it’s largely meaningless in 2024, that was not always the case.

When Apple rolled out iMessage back in 2011, many people were still paying fees (or subject to limits) on SMS. So basically any text messages you sent to other iPhones became free. That’s probably where the stigma started, because you knew “green messages” were hitting your cellular plan as SMS/MMS. I don’t think major US carriers really charge for SMS/MMS nowadays so I think it’s become largely meaningless from that perspective.

The other, more recent change is group text messages. Group texts among iPhone users have always worked very well via iMessage. For a long time, a non-Apple phone could break a group text chat. I honestly have no idea if this was an issue with certain Android phones, people having old flip phones, carriers not handling group MMS correctly, or what.

The last point of stigma is that iPhones default to iMessage when you send a text to a phone number that’s tied to an iPhone.. as long as the iMessage can be delivered. So when you’re texting friends/family with iPhones you get a blue bubble and a “delivered” notification when the message goes through. If the message can’t be delivered due to cellular issues, someone’s phone being dead, or whatever, it defaults back to SMS/MMS and turns the bubble green. Which creates a bit of positive/negative connotation around the bubble colors.

To answer your actual question - yes Apple people only use one type of messaging because iMessage is automatic when you text a cell phone number tied to an iPhone. So there’s no conscious decision to send a message one way or another unless you’re using iMessage on a computer, iPad, or something along those lines.