Android Campaigns To End Green Text Bubbles Apple Does Not Respond

By Aidan Walker
1279 views
• Published 2 years ago

Published 2 years ago

Since the dawn of smartphones, group chats have been a crucial place for the sharing of memes and the forging of friendships between people, but they have been plagued by one persistent problem — the green text.

The long-standing issue is that if an Android user is added to a group chat of iPhones, not only do their replies show up in a different colored text bubble, but the group chat cannot be given a funny nickname and it lacks many iOS-specific functions.


In an attempt to resolve this infamous issue, Google and Android have started a new social media ad campaign to pressure Apple into changing the software it uses for iMessages so that Android users no longer show up as green text and group chats involving them can have special nicknames. If Apple were to switch to a Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol, the texts of Android users would appear normally.


Google, through Android, has been heavily promoting the campaign under the hashtag #GetTheMessage, but it seems to have picked up little steam. Apple, despite being constantly called out by Android on Twitter, has yet to reply at all, choosing to stick to a minimalist and lowkey posting strategy.


Sticking to Short Message Service (SMS) rather than RCS has arguably been a winning business strategy for Apple. The company’s decision to attempt to make texting on a competitor’s smartphone a "lesser" experience has been covered by the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, as well as a frequent topic in memes online for years.

The logic seems to be that if it feels cringe to receive a green text bubble, or know that your friends are receiving them from you, users might switch to an iPhone. To some degree, it seems to have worked, as Apple has been the leader in smartphone market share in the U.S. for years now (though Android massively dominates globally), filling as many front pockets in America as all of its competitors combined.


As the campaign spread on social media, some users online were simply confused as to why Android seemed to care so much.


Others also pointed out supposed flaws in Android devices that the company could address.


The campaign may have been inspired by the recent Drake song “Texts Go Green,” in which the Canadian rapper describes watching his iMessage texts to a woman turn green.

Two scenarios could make it so Drake’s messages change color: The woman may have switched to an Android while Drizzy is still using an iPhone or she may have blocked him after their breakup. Smartphones have proven to be a frequent subject for Drake, whose "Hotline Bling" helped to define an era in which they were still used for calling.


Android notably seized on the opportunity back in June to post a lyrics explainer video.


It’s likely the campaign, which has been tirelessly toiling along all summer, will not be particualrly successful — so you may be seeing green text in the gc for a long time to come.

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