iPhone users’ messages turn green when texting Android phones. When both people are on iPhones, all the messages are blue. This is not just about aesthetics.
When two iPhone users communicate, the texts are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they are more private and far more secure. When iPhones text with Androids, the messages are sent via SMS, an old protocol that dates back to 1992. There are other drawbacks, too, for years the little heart reactions you can add to a message weren’t compatible across platforms, and videos was sent between iPhone and Android would be compressed and sent in pitifully low quality.
Basically, it looks like this is Apple’s fault. Google, the manufacturer of Android, wants to solve the problem. Google adopted a new text protocol that would solve all these problems called RCS. Google will fix the problem with the green text by cooperating with Apple, but Apple apparently rejects. Apple could also just make an iMessage app for Android, but they probably won’t either.
In an email disclosed in a lawsuit, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said, “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove (a) barrier to iPhone families giving their children Android phones. ” Another Apple employee said elsewhere that “the #1 hardest (reason) to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage… iMessage is the equivalent of severe deadlock.” In other words, it’s about crushing their competition.
When a reporter asked Tim Cook when Apple would adopt RCS, he said: “buy your mom an iPhone.” Sweet, but you paid for your iPhone and it’s your notifications that turn green, not your Android mom’s. Apple is making life worse for you, the loyal Apple customer, to control your choices about your next purchase .It also doesn’t hurt that it creates a stigma for people who don’t want to spend $1,000 on a new iPhone either.