[digital-cygnet]

I know multiple people who cited iMessage compatibility as their top reason for switching and even have considered it myself -- the chilling effect that "green text" has on including non-iMessage users in group messages is real and has small but measurable impact on some of my relationships.

It is particularly pernicious among teens[1], who drive a lot of this market (and, of course, become adults and bring their habits with them)

[1] (paywall) https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-...

[CharlesW]

> It is particularly pernicious among teens…

In my experience as a parent with two high-school-age kids, this is mostly a media-created narrative fueled by Google PR.

I've witnessed their many text chains, all of which are standards-based (green bubble) because some participants are Android users. When I asked about it explicitly their response was "that's not a thing" (at least in SoCal).

Note that I'm speaking in generalities. I have no doubt there are individual elite cliques where the alpha children demand that members have certain types of phones, wear certain types of clothing, ride certain models of ebikes, etc.

[nucleardog]

I know multiple people that have said the same.

It had nothing to do with “green text”. They were annoyed that when people shared photos with the group they came through at shit quality.

Outside of what I’m sure are some articles very in tune to teenage culture (BRB, POS), I’ve literally never heard of this as a status symbol—purely as a functional issue.