Samsung used a short video to join Google in urging Apple to add support for Rich Communication Services to iMessage, which would end the blue bubble vs. green bubble divide.
The reason for their campaign is obvious: if Apple made the change, people would be more likely to switch from iPhone to Samsung’s Androids.
Samsung video shows frustrated love between iPhone and Android
If an iPhone receives a text from another Apple user, it shows up in a blue bubble. But texts from Android users show up green. And many of the features of iMessage don’t work with green bubbles. This because iMessage doesn’t support RCS, instead reserving the best benefits of its messaging software to iPhone users.
Samsung’s response is a short video that’s a modern take on Romeo and Juliet.
It starts with a green bubble saying, “I hate that it has to be like this … can you just talk to your parents?”
The response is, “I tried but they want to keep us apart.”
The first person answers, “What did green ever do to them? We’re bubbles too.”
The tagline on the Samsung video is “Don’t let Apple cost you love.”
iPhone support for RCS is really about Samsung and Google vs. Apple
Apple resists adding RCS support for the same reason Samsung and Google desire it: competition between the companies.
Android-makers want better cross-platform messaging not out of the goodness of their hearts but because it would likely increase the number of people switching from iOS to Google’s Android OS. Obviously, that’s not in Apple’s best interest.
A whopping 87% of U.S. teens own an iPhone and are accustomed to the full benefits of blue bubbles. There’s peer pressure to not use Android as this can cause problems for everyone in group chats.
And it’s not just teens. The CEO of a popular startup says that entrepreneurs seeking funding from venture capitalists are less likely to get it with texts that appear in green bubbles.
If Apple adds RCS support to its software, the cross-platform differences would go away, along with one of the reasons to choose iPhone.
But Cupertino might not have much of a choice. The European Union is investigating forcing iMessage to support cross-platform features like RCS.
