The vast majority of ~~people~~ teens (87%) in the U.S. own an iPhone and most of those people are going to use the default messaging app, which is iMessage. Makes sense.
What I don’t understand is the “hate” green bubbles tend to incite. One [article](https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-1021350/) put it this way:
>Some iPhone users \[. . .\] mock the green bubbles that appear in their iMessage feed, even going so far as to create colloquialisms such as “green texts don’t get texts back.”
Is this accurate?
46 comments
No
Single word answers aren’t so great at being informative, but visiting the FAQ section, I’m sure, would be. With as often as this question is asked, I imagine this one would be in our FAQs.
I’ve never heard of this in my life. And for some reason, I don’t think a website promoting Android phones is a reliable source about people who use Apple phones.
Not unless you are a child
Per [these statistics](https://www.counterpointresearch.com/us-market-smartphone-share/), Apple phones make up 50% of the marketshare in the U.S. This is far from any sort of “vast majority”. As a result, it would be fair to assume that most iPhone users also know some non-iPhone users.
Getting to the root question, I know a lot of people with all sorts of cellular devices, and I’ve never heard of any sort of hate over “green bubbles”. In fact, while there may be some comparisons that happen among people who use different devices, in my experience the vast majority of people don’t seem to care about what brand of phone other people use. In my personal anecdotal experience, iPhone users do seem to be confused any time an Android user says they don’t have Facetime, but everyone seems to use more widespread clients like WhatsApp instead to talk to each other now for reasons that I don’t fully understand (I’m one of those people that tried and failed to make Signal a thing in my circle of friends and family.)
It’s a meme but I’ve never met a person IRL who *really* cares.
It is obvious nobody answering this question works or lives somewhere with zero cell coverage and has to rely on wifi for their phone to work.
The problem with the green bubbles is group messages with one non Apple user become MMS, which is terribly unreliable, and photo quality becomes trash. MMS messages can come in late to certain phones, or never, or as a single message and not part of the group. It isn’t great. Blue bubbles only? Issue is gone.
I’ve heard it jokingly but never seriously.
As an iPhone user the standard sms vs iMessage you can’t “reply” to specific messages in the thread and if you “like/dislike” an image or something you end up with a text about liking an image with no reference. Not major concerns but different.
This is such a non-issue that the only time I hear of it is when people ask about it here.
As that same article you linked pointed out, this is mostly a problem with kids, and teenagers are brutal to each other.
>The vast majority of people in the U.S. own an iPhone
no? It’s a little more than half.
We need to put this in the FAQ. Lol
/r/AskAnAmerican is the only place I’ve ever heard of this “issue”. It sounds like something teenagers or immature people would worry about. I have an iPhone, I have friends that use Android, I’ve never experienced any trouble sending or receiving messages from those friends. I don’t understand this at all.
Dunno, I’m an old and use FB Messenger, like my father and grandfather before me.
No.
This is mentioned on Reddit way more than in real life.
I have an iPhone and most of my friends have android phones. I didn’t notice any difference in texting or bubble color until this question came up. Still not sure why this is an issue.
If anything the people I know with android phones have way stronger opinions on phone type than anyone I know with an iPhone.
Buddies have bitched me out over it before, but that’s because we’re buddies, if someone’s balls aren’t being busted I’d start to get worried someone has cancer or something. In which case cancer jokes would become part of the vernacular.
>The vast majority of people in the U.S. own an iPhone
Well for starters this is incorrect.
I think it’s a joke mostly.
Correction: *Sorry, I should’ve said* [*most teens*](https://howtogeek.com/778355/new-study-says-87-of-us-teens-have-an-iphone/) *(87%) in the U.S. have an iPhone.*
I’ve always owned Androids, and if it weren’t for this sub I’d have no idea that this was a thing.
I can only assume that it’s pretty much exclusively something children worry about.
As someone who makes a really good living and have always thought of iPhones as too expensive for me, I find it so odd that teenagers, most of whom aren’t paying for the phones with their own money, overwhelmingly have iPhones. Why aren’t parents insisting they have cheaper devices?
I hate apple and apple products, does that count for something?
Only time it’s an issue is when trying to make a group chat.
No, its a meme.
I mean, yeah some find them annoying. Specifically because it forces those conversations to use mms which puts sharp limits in attachment size and such. Apple refuses to implement RCS or allow others to implement iMessage so mixed conversations are stuck with ancient protocols.
Teenagers are not exactly known for their fully developed social skills. The fact that some would mock people based on what phone they use doesn’t seem that far outside the realm of possibility.
I remember people being annoyed by it, now I assume for their sake they’re joking if anyone says it. Always seemed like a way to feel superior by pointing out that they have what they consider is the more elite phone.
Even then, nowhere near a common real issue for people.
I’ve heard of this anecdotally, but as an iPhone user myself I really do not care what device other people prefer. I only ask that you do not call me when a text message will suffice!
The only real issue I have ever had is is if you have MMS only with iMessage you can’t remove someone from a group chat. I made one the other day to give several people some important information and a bunch of people just started chatting. This annoyed the hell out of one guy trying to work. I couldn’t take him off.
Whereas if everyone is on iMessage you can just remove yourself from the chat or I can remove you.
Mild annoyance but nothing major.
Kids that get all worked up about it are just being normal teenage jerks.
This is just a meme.
It’s something stupid friends make fun of each about in a friendly sort of way. Nobody actually cares what phone you use. I think there are just a lot of overly sensitive people out there, especially on the internet.
I wouldn’t know I’ve always had an android
It used to be stronger when android had a really budget reputation.
As someone who was a teen with an iPhone the fact that the bubbles are different did kinda bother some people.
Also I want to point out that iMessages send quicker and for awhile group chats didn’t work super well if and android was included.
So for those reasons it was sometimes a bigger deal to teens than the rest of the comments think.
It’s one more thing for humanity to develop in groups and out groups over.
Children are children and will find a reason to separate into groups and mock others. The color of the text bubble indicating which technology was used to transmit the message is just an easy one to use, so it does.
It’s something meant to tease close friends and those we feel comfortable joking around with. I don’t know of anyone who seriously and intentionally shames others who don’t use iPhones. It’s just a meme really
In a word, no. My fiancée and I were having issues where her iPhone wasn’t receiving messages from my Android, so we use WhatsApp to text each other.
We’ve both upgraded phones since, but inertia keeps us on WhatsApp.
The sentiment is real, but if you run into someone who actually cares, stay away from them. The immaturity is astounding. Anyone who has grown up even a tiny bit should immediately go “who the hell cares” in the green vs blue bubble debate. I have an iPhone and I could not care less what color the bubbles are of the person I’m texting.
I have had friends and family suggest I get an iphone so I can use FaceTime, but these same people rarely call me anyway… maybe because I have android, who knows.
I have iPhone. My kid uses my Apple ID because… kid. He uses iMessage. I turned iMessage OFF on my phone so we don’t share messages. Therefore. I am apple but still have green bubble. It. Makes. No. Difference.
I’m not sure what the big deal is. I’ve used iphones since the 3GS in 2009. Bubbles are green so what?
No, this is dumb as hell. 50% of Americans are on Android. This is some trendy yuppie BS that’s being hyped up by media, probably at Apple’s behest.
It’s so dumb there can’t even be an android equivalent, since you can change the colors of your text bubbles at will.
Maybe this is a thing teens care about (or act like they care about) for status reasons, but no one else gives a shit.
Nah, it’s because people are assholes and classist as fuck, esspecially teenagers and young adults.
Kids don’t even know what the green bubbles mean.
No idea, but some probably do. Teenagers tend to be pretty fucking stupid sometimes and can be huge assholes just because they think they can get away with it.
It’s basically just annoying when one person makes group chats more difficult. You can’t search for the chat group and videos always come through tiny. And no, we don’t want to switch to WhatsApp for one person.
People don’t like it because one green bubble in a group chat disables iMessage features for everyone.
Even with that, I’ve never met anyone who genuinely hates people with androids. Definitely the butt of a joke sometimes, but there’s always a comeback about people being apple slaves. Just some fun back and forth.