Hacker News

Favorites Setup
Comment by Rohansi | original | Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux
[−]Rohansi · 2026-08-29 Sat 17:49 UTC · link
Green bubbles, WhatsApp, Signal, etc. are not an option for a lot of people. I don't get it either.
[−]agoodusername63 · 2026-08-29 Sat 17:53 UTC · link
Because techies on average aren't socially popular enough to get anybody to make any effort to msg them on a better platform.
[−]nvme0n1p1 · 2026-08-29 Sat 18:20 UTC · link
Speak for yourself
[−]agoodusername63 · 2026-08-29 Sat 18:24 UTC · link
Ok! I don't use iMessage because people I want to talk to are happy to install a new app to do so. :)
[−]jorvi · 2026-08-30 Sun 10:06 UTC · link
… WhatsApp is the main messenger globally and it is the 'odd' people that use iMessage (and Signal, Telegram, etc.)
[−]Rohansi · 2026-08-30 Sun 10:41 UTC · link
Statistically, sure, but it's not evenly distributed across regions and cultures. People can find themselves in social circles where iMessage is the norm and be pressured into using it because others are unwilling to install a second messaging app.
[−]bluebarbet · 2026-08-30 Sun 12:04 UTC · link
Hard to imagine any "region or culture" where iMessage is the norm outside a section of the US middle class.
[−]smt88 · 2026-08-29 Sat 19:11 UTC · link
I know people who have iPhones just for FaceTime because young and old non-techies use those a lot.

I’ve gotten my close friends onto Signal but there are still always 3-4 group chats where that isn’t possible.

[−]Rohansi · 2026-08-29 Sat 19:48 UTC · link
> I’ve gotten my close friends onto Signal but there are still always 3-4 group chats where that isn’t possible.

I'm sure it's possible for them to use Signal but some people are unreasonably stubborn.

[−]smt88 · 2026-08-30 Sun 16:25 UTC · link
Signal doesn’t work with CarPlay or Apple Watch, which are pretty huge gaps even for me.
[−]ihjbtvjkdidie · 2026-08-29 Sat 21:54 UTC · link
What is there to get? Some people just don’t want to use other services. Period.

Not sure why people having their own subjective views and preferences is such a hard concept to grasp.

[−]Rohansi · 2026-08-30 Sun 02:40 UTC · link
That's not what's hard to understand. It's choosing to exclusively use iMessage knowing that not everyone can use it. And then shifting your social circle based on one company's decision to not support it on other platforms.
[−]frankvdwaal · 2026-08-30 Sun 10:27 UTC · link
If you think that something extremely basic seems something that is hard to grasp for other people, it's usually because you're misunderstanding the situation, not because other people are failing to grasp the extremely basic thing.
[−]sneak · 2026-08-30 Sun 01:06 UTC · link
That’s simply not true.
[−]drnick1 · 2026-08-30 Sun 01:29 UTC · link
What is the problem with green bubbles? I don't get it. Doesn't it just mean the other person is not using an Apple device?

If you really want blue bubbles, use Signal, the default color is blue.

[−]Barbing · 2026-08-30 Sun 01:40 UTC · link
For years it meant fewer features and frustrating experiences in group chats.

Kids liked renaming group chats and liking/reacting to individual messages, and sending higher-res photos, and one "green bubble" participant nerfed the whole chat for everyone.

In spite of Apple knowing kids got bullied over this, meh, money. Thankfully this has now been just about fixed (depending on which Android version/carrier someone has), so green bubble stigma should be on its way out [eventually].

Firmly believe no one ever actually cared about the color.

[−]Rohansi · 2026-08-30 Sun 02:06 UTC · link
RCS messages still show as green bubbles. I'm sure kids will still be bullied for it even if group chats didn't degrade.

All of these problems could be avoided if iMessage was cross-platform or if people just used something else. Nobody is being forced to use iMessage

[−]SirMaster · 2026-08-30 Sun 02:09 UTC · link
How has it been fixed? It's still just Apple parsing the messages that came through like so and so reacted with some emoji to some message, and then attaching it to that message. But then this doesn't work with reacting to attachments like photos as it doesn't know which photo was reacted to.
[−]kps · 2026-08-30 Sun 01:41 UTC · link
Apple's green bubbles are low contrast and hard to read, on purpose.