With the help of Apple’s internal app “Messages”, iPhone users can send texts. Some messages are blue and others are green. TECHBOOK explains the meaning behind the colors.
If you send text messages on your iPhone, you know it: sometimes the messages are blue, other times the speech bubble is green. But what exactly does a green or a blue iMessage mean? This play of colors is not coincidence, because there is a simple explanation for it.
Is a green message an SMS or an iMessage?
The answer: If the speech bubble is green, iPhone users have sent an SMS or MMS. This can be for a number of reasons, such as a lack of an internet connection or the recipient’s device is not compatible with the Apple Messages app. It is important that these green messages are not so-called iMessages.
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If the speech bubble is blue instead of green, users have written and sent an iMessage. Texts, photos and videos are sent to iOS devices or Mac computers via an Internet connection. The special feature: Your messages are always encrypted. This is not the case with classic SMS or MMS. Messages are sent as iMessages on the iPhone if the addressee of the message also has an iOS device. If this is not the case, for example because the contact is using an Android smartphone, the iPhone automatically switches to normal SMS mode.
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Does an iMessage cost money?
Anyone who has not booked an SMS flat rate pays a few cents for each green text message. So it can definitely be worth saving the money and writing messages on your smartphone via iMessage. Who only green SMSinstead of sending blue iMessages, we recommend communicating with these contacts via Messenger WhatsApp.
Here’s how to turn off iMessage and only get green messages
If you don’t want to send messages to your contacts as a blue iMessage but rather as a green SMS, you can disable the function. The advantage: You can also send the messages without internet access. Under the menu item “Settings” find the “Messages” option. There you can disable iMessage.
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Debate: Exclusive iMessage feature locks out Android users
The different play of colors has already caused a heated debate in the past. The problem: Only Apple users can use iMessage to its full extent, while Android users can only send SMS or MMS and pay money for each green text message without a flat ratehave to pay. In addition, Android users face the challenge of not having the same opportunities to participate in conversations in group chats, since, for example, the FaceTime app for video calls is not compatible with Android devices.
The result: users of other smartphones are at a disadvantage when using Apple’s news app. In the US, the discussion even escalated to such an extent that young Android users were bullied by their Apple-using peers because of their green iMessages. The problem of incompatibility could be cleared out of the way, the solution for this already exists: “iMessage should not benefit from bullying. Texting should bring us together, and the solution exists. Let’s fix this as one industry,” Android said via Twitter.
Android urged Apple to take the situation seriously and find a solution. Apple does not necessarily have to make iMessage accessible to all smartphone users. Instead, Apple is said to allow services in iMessage that allow non-Apple owners to participate in chats on the same terms. “We’re not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android. We’re asking Apple to support the industry standard for modern messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS / MMS standards,” Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer tweeted.