"I caved to the blue bubble pressure"
The fact that this is a real thing is ridiculous. Say no and move on with life. This is the type of freedom that is actually freeing.
Signal has blue bubbles if you care, and is hands down better for privacy.
Especially with RCS support, I’m more willing to leave iOS more than ever. Group chats aren’t as easy but everyone uses WhatsApp anyway.
Its a real issue in North America.
SMS and as a result iMessage is the dominant text based chat.
iPhones have become the default smartphone, and is a status symbol compared to Android.
Mac vs Windows is similar on the laptop front.
Which means if your an Android user in a relatively average social group:
* You will get left out of group messages
* You will be starting on a back foot in the dating scene
On top of you wont be able to answer messages from friends on your laptop, because again, sms is dominant, not whatsapp.
Now don't shoot the messenger here. I don't like it either, but this is the social/technical reality in NA at the moment.
(sigh: receiving downvotes)
Definitely ridiculous and mostly an exaggeration on my part. There is some truth to it because the features of iMessage group chats are fun (stickers, message animations, etc.) but more generally I just like the Apple ecosystem.
My personal devices are usually Apple products and they all work together pretty seamlessly. Then I have all my other Linux servers, Windows desktops, random tablets, etc. for my hobby projects which generally require more manual configuration to work together.
I just like having my “personal” things within an aesthetically pleasing, relatively privacy preserving ecosystem but I get my kicks outside of that ecosystem aplenty.